College Park sweeps Klein

SPRING, Texas - Junior Emily Thorson and Senior Alyssa McNeely combined for 29 kills to lead the College Park Cavaliers to a 25-19, 25-12, 25-18 bi-district playoff win against Klein Tuesday night.

“We came out aggressive and adjusted to the things they (Klein) were trying to do. They (Klein) play a different defense and we did well making the adjustment to beat the defense that we don’t see very often,” said Cavalier Head Coach Candice Collins.

College Park (25-10) got off to identical leads in the match at 6-2 in the first set, 8-2 in the second set, and 6-2 in the third set, respectively. The early leads fueled the Cavaliers as they overcame some mistakes in the first and third sets, however they never trailed at any point against Klein (20-16).

“Our Libero Savannah Rutledge, did an awesome job and everyone was out there ready to play tonight. We stepped up on offense and defense, the whole team worked together really well,” said Emily Thorson.

The first set saw College Park race out to a 7-3 lead, however unforced errors saw the Cavalier lead shrink to 12-10 at the first timeout. The Cavaliers would regroup following the timeout and went on a short run fueled by Sophomore Kennedi Smith, Alyssa McNeely and back-to-back kills by Emily Thorson, to extend the Cavalier lead to 17-13. Thorson had seven of her match-high 16 kills in the first set. College Park continued to be aggressive as Thorson, Smith, and McNeely finished Klein off with two kills and a block at the net to win the first set 25-19.

The Cavaliers turned dominate in the second set as they raced out to a 8-1 lead under the serve of Kennedi Smith. Thorson had back-to-back kills again and a Klein attack error gave College Park a 12-4 lead. Klein would get no closer than 18-10 in the second set as College Park took advantage of several Klein unforced errors along with three blocks down the stretch to win the second set 25-12.

College Park once again got out to an early lead in the third set at 6-2, however several Cavalier errors drew Klein within 9-7. Smith and McNeely had kills at the net to extend the lead to 12-7 at the first timeout. An ace by Senior Andi Platt and kills by Smith and McNeely had College Park opening up a 16-7 lead. Klein committed several unforced errors down the stretch as they could not get any closer than 19-14. College Park took advantage of three more Klein errors to close the third set at 25-18 and sweep Klein, who had not been swept in eight of their last 10 matches coming in.

College Park advances to the Area round to play Austin Westlake (22-10) on Friday, November 8, at Bryan Rudder High School at 6:00pm.