Last week the Carbon volleyball team had two big matches to finish up their pre-season play. Carbon defeated Park City on Wednesday 25-21, 25-22, 17-25, and 25-21. They then took on Grantsville and sent them home with the broom as they swept them 25-17, 25-22 and 25-21.
Carbon came out strong and confident against the much taller Park City line-up on Wednesday. They took the lead from the beginning and never looked back. But in game two they found themselves fighting from behind the entire game. It looked bleak with Park City up 21-17 when Carbon turned on the burners and stole the show.
Game three saw the Dinos again playing from behind. This time service and other unforced errors kept them from making the last minute run. There would be no sweep on this day. But the scrappy team did not roll over as they regrouped during the break and came back with confidence to take the lead and keep it the entire game. One late charge from Park City made the game look closer than it had been, but the Dinos came out on top and took the match.
Britni Greenwood led the Carbon attack with 15 kills. She was helped by Joy Malone with 12 and Cherelle Julian with nine. Julia Potts had four service aces. Three of them were her first three in game one.
“They fought back and never gave up. It was frustrating that in game three we gave them (Park City) 16 of their 25 points off unforced errors on our part. We can get away with that against a team like Park City, but we will have to play much better if we are going to win tomorrow against Grantsville,” expressed Coach Cristin Johnson after the win.
Many of the upstate press have seen Grantsville as a better team than Carbon and have shown it in early rankings. The Dinos know better than to care about that.
They went quickly to work on Thursday dispatching the Cowboys in three. This time they cut way down on service errors and mistakes and it showed. Britney Gustas had 17 digs in the match and Johnson praised her defensive effort. Greenwood and Malone each scored 10 kills against the Cowboys. Julia Potts set them up over and over again with 21 set assists on the night.
Johnson was much happier with the effort on Thursday. “They came out right from the start and played better. The girls came ready to play. They passed well, cut down on their errors and had a good balanced team effort.”
Carbon will take a week to ready themselves for the start of region action on Sept.16 against Juan Diego. The varsity action will begin at 7:00 p.m.
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