VOLLEYBALL: Kennedi Smith leads Lady Cavaliers to ‘win the day’ 3-0 against Clear Lake

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — The College Park varsity volleyball team swept Clear Lake 3-0 in their match Tuesday evening.

The Lady Cavaliers topped their opponent 25-20, 25-19, 25-19 with Kennedi Smith leading the team with two aces and 14 kills.

“Kennedi has a great energy, and when she is on it really fires up the team. We look to her a lot,” Head Coach Candice Collins said. “She is one of our strongest offensive weapons, so we definitely look for her to kind of lead our offense. Once she’s on and she’s putting the ball away, it really gives the rest of the girls confidence, and that alone will kind of light the fire on everyone else.”

Also stepping up for the Cavaliers was junior middle blocker and first year varsity athlete, Linzi Woods, with six kills.

“This is her first year on varsity, and she has come so far. She has incredible energy about her,” Collins said. “She did great tonight blocking, and she gets better with each match. She’s coachable, so we’re able to make little tweaks on timing or on her elbow and different things like that. I think she’s great and has great improvement and has been outstanding.”

The Lady Cavaliers donned their neon green shirts that read, “Win the Day” before their match, which has been their mantra for their 2015 season. Collins said they knew they would be a young team and wanted to get their athletes to focus on taking their victories one day at a time.

“In the off season, we started with ‘win the day’ because it’s important that we take it day by day and that you start each day with a purpose — not looking forward and not getting down on yourself,” Collins said.

Collins said the game seemed slow and there were things they could have done better, but overall she was proud of the way the athletes stepped up through their mistakes and were still able to pull a win over Clear Lake.

“I think that the younger kids are really stepping up, and I think my seniors are doing an outstanding job,” Collins said. “The really cool thing about only having 11 kids is that everyone is contributing every night, and I think that they’re learning so much every time we step on the floor, and I think that’s going to help us in the end.”