By By GREG KATSKI
Staff Writer
CHOCOWINITY — The Southside volleyball team (4-1) took its first loss of the young season Tuesday night, falling to the Jamesville Bullets 3-2 at home.
The Bullets (2-0) came screaming back from a 2-0 deficit to post the uplifting win. After Southside took the first two sets 25-21 and 27-25, Jamesville won three straight 25-18, 25-23 and 15-11.
The Bullets never trailed in the final game after going up 2-0 early. Southside’s Atyanna Starkie got her team on the board in the fifth game with a sweet spike kill, but Jamesville came roaring back to go up 8-4 before Seahawks head coach Elizabeth Pruden called a timeout. Southside rallied to tie the game at 11-11 behind a kill from Jessica Taylor, until Jamesville got the ball back on a Seahawks mistake. Bullets server Holly Knott then knocked off four straight points for the five-game Jamesville win.
After the game, Bullets head coach Carrie Jones said she was proud of the way her team fought back to the 2-0 hole.
“It definitely shows a lot of character and a lot of heart,” she said. “It’s enough to win one game against a team like this (Southside), much less come back and have to put three back-to-back.”
Southside got off to its usual hot start in the first game, going up 8-5 behind two kills from Starkie, and a thundering spike kill from Renikia Hodges off a great set from Kristen Ayers. Danyelle Jedlicka would add another kill before Jamesville would rally to tie it at 15. The Bullets took the lead at 20-19 thanks to a great diving dig, until Hodges would knot it up again at 20. Ayers took the ball to serve at 21-21, and ran off four straight points for the win.
In the second game, Southside’s Starkie started things off with a spike kill to put her team up 3-1. Two kills from Hodges and digs from Starkie and Ayers really put the Seahawks in control at 10-5. After another block kill from Starkie, Southside had its largest lead of the game at 16-8. Then Jamesville would mount its first comeback of the night, coming all the way back to lead 24-23. The Bullets got a huge lift from reserve player Paxton Copeland, who knocked off three straight spike kills in the run. Jamesville server Paige Copeland finally hit a bad serve to turn the ball over to the Seahawks at 24-24. Southside would get the 27-25 win on a kill from Taylor.
The third game was all Jamesville after Lilley started the Bullets off with three service points. Southside would tie the game several times before Lilley came back with three more points and the 14-11 lead. A spike kill from Southside’s Hodges brought the game to within 23-18, but that was the last point the Seahawks would get.
The Bullets took a close win 25-23 in the fourth game before the decisive fifth.
“They’re a good team,” Southside coach Pruden said about Jamesville after the game. “I think we could’ve beat them if everything was on.”
But the Seahawks coach said her players were off in every facet of the game — passing, setting and hitting.
“We beat ourselves,” she said. “Usually when we make mistakes, we don’t get down on ourselves, but tonight, for some reason, we did.”
Southside returns to action with an away game at Pamlico on Thursday at 4:30 p.m., while Jamesville welcomes Roanoke on the same night.