Published: October 10, 2008 10:26 am      

Lady Lions ease past Vernon

By DARIN ALLRED

Register Sports Editor

The North Central Texas College Lady Lions volleyball team continued to move up the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference standings with a 25-20, 25-15, 25-20 win over the Vernon College Lady Chaparrals Thursday night at Lions Fieldhouse.

The win improved the Lady Lions’ conference record to 3-1, moving them ahead of Vernon who fell to 2-2. NCTC is now in second place just one game behind Temple, who is undefeated at 4-0.

The Lady Lions came out firing in the first game as Leslye Richmond served three-straight points and Liz Neyland and Kate Harrison each had kills to put NCTC ahead 9-1. Vernon came back to pull within 12-8, but back-to-back kills by Leticia Silva pushed the Lion lead to 14-9.

The Lady Chaps reeled off five straight points to go ahead 15-14, but NCTC regained the lead on an ace by Neyland and a kill by Ashley Hardcastle put the Lady Lions back up 18-17. Harrison then served three points to push the lead to 21-18.

Down the stretch, Hardcastle had two more kills as NCTC took the first game 25-20.

The second game was back-and-forth in the beginning as neither team had more than a one-point lead until Andrea Davis served two points to put NCTC ahead 8-6.

It was 9-9 when Jordy Phyffer had a kill to give the Lady Lions a sideout and a 10-9 lead. Neyland then served four straight points and Hardcastle had a pair of kills to put NCTC ahead 14-9.

The lead grew to 19-10 as Harrison had four service points and Silva and Phyffer teamed up on a block at the net. NCTC put the game away with another block from Silva and kills from Hardcastle and Neyland to take the second game 25-15.

Vernon jumped on top 4-1 in the third game before Neyland served an ace to put NCTC ahead 5-4. The Lady Lions trailed 9-6 before Ashley Lee and Chelsea Hermes came into the game and gave the home team a spark. Lee had three kills and a block, Neyland added two kills and Hermes had a kill as well as NCTC went up 15-11.

The Chaps went back up 17-16, but Phyffer stopped the bleeding with a kill and Neyland served three points to put NCTC back ahead 20-17. A pair of kills by Hardcastle made it 24-20, then Hermes put an exclamation point on the game with a thunderous kill to end the game 25-20.

Kate Harrison had 33 assists, 14 kills, 10 digs and 2 blocks; Ashley Hardcastle had 13 kills and 13 digs; Jordy Phyffer had 9 kills, 2 digs and 1 block; Liz Neyland had 7 kills, 15 digs and 3 assists; Leslye Richmond had 12 digs and 1 ace; Ashley Lee had 5 kills and 3 blocks; Chelsea Hermes had 2 kills and 2 assists; Leticia Silva had 2 kills, 2 blocks and 1 dig; and Andrea Davis had 4 digs.

On Tuesday, the Lady Lions picked up maybe their biggest win of the season by going on the road and knocking off Hill College 23-25, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22, 15-7 in Hillsboro.

“This was a huge road win for us and was our most complete game of the year for us,” NCTC coach Angie Bullard said. “The girls worked extremely hard to earn this win. I was very proud of their performance as a team.”

In that game, Jordy Phyffer had 10 kills and 7 blocks; Liz Neyland had 11 kills, 15 digs, 3 aces and 2 blocks; Ashley Hardcastle had 16 digs and 8 kills; Kate Harrison had 38 assists, 12 digs, 7 kills and 6 blocks; Leslye Richmond had 18 digs; Ashley Lee had 6 blocks and 4 kills; Leticia Silva had 5 kills; and Andrea Davis had 5 digs, 3 assists and 2 aces.

NCTC will continue conference play at home Tuesday with an afternoon match against Ranger College at 4.