Photo: Northpoint Christian’s Quinn Thurman reaches for a volley during the first set of Thursday’s match at Lake Cormorant. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)
The highlight volleyball game of Thursday night was not a district match, but a battle between two of the three DeSoto County squads that appeared in their respective state tournaments last year. Lake Cormorant joined Lewisburg as Mississippi state champions, taking the 6A championship at Ole Miss. It was the Lady Gators’ second straight title, and they hosted the Northpoint Christian Lady Trojans, which reached the Tennessee Division II-A state tournament last year at Murfreesboro.
Northpoint went into The Swamp Thursday night and came away with a three-set sweep of the Lady Gators, 25-15, 25-21, 26-24.
In the first set, Northpoint scored seven of the first eight points for a 7-1 lead, but after a service ace from Payton Davis, Lake Cormorant had cut the lead to 8-4 and sliced it further to 9-6.
However, Northpoint recovered to take a 13-7 with a service ace from Quinn Thurman. Lake Cormorant rallied again to get within 16-14 with a kill shot that caused the Lady Trojans to take a timeout.
Northpoint came out of the timeout for a four-point run that included a kill from Chrissy Nolen for a 20-14 lead. Another Quinn Thurman kill, added to a block from Nolen and a volley that was tipped out of bounds to give Northpoint the first set victory.
The second set was tight. Northpoint held a 9-6 lead but Lake Cormorant came back to tie it up at 14-14 and it stayed like that until the Lady Trojans forged a 20-18 lead. The advantage would continue to 24-20 and finally 25-21 for Northpoint in the second set.
It looked like Lake Cormorant had finally settled into their game in the third set, leading 5-1, a lead that caused Northpoint to call a timeout to try and stop the momentum. But the Lady Gators continued to accelerate their game to a 10-3 lead, which became 16-9 when a volley fell off a block for a Lake Cormorant point.
That’s when Northpoint started their comeback with five of the next seven points to get within 18-14. Lake Cormorant called a timeout at that point and then called another one when the Lady Trojans had scored three straight points out of the timeout.
The Lady Gators looked to be on the verge of extending the match when they took a 24-20 lead and got within set point, but Northpoint would score the final six points for the set and the match.
Val Hurdle scored the last two points on ace serves to take the set and match, 26-24. Hurdle, who was featured more in the Northpoint offense Thursday night, said Lake Cormorant’s recent victory over Collierville inspired the Lady Trojans.
“I think it was a really tough match,” Hurdle said. “We saw them beat Collierville and we were just ready to go in and take care of business. We worked really hard.”
Lake Cormorant knocked off Collierville earlier in the week in four sets. The Lady Dragons shutout Northpoint 3-0 back on Sept. 5. Collierville is a TSSAA AAA school while Northpoint is in Division II-A.
“We came out banging balls,” Hurdle said. “We came out with some momentum at the beginning of the game, which was amazing, and it continued for the entire game.”
Hurdle added that the third set comeback showed that her team can recover from anything and the win should give her team confidence going forward.
Northpoint is in Nashville for a tournament this weekend and Lake Cormorant will also be in a tournament, but in Tupelo.
(DeSoto Central: Remy McIntosh – 18 digs and 5 aces; Shelbi Smith – 11 digs and 3 aces; Sydney Tague – 34 assists; Emma Claire Story – 13 kills; Zion Rucker – 11 kills)
