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Block Party: Hebron stifles Allen offense in four-set victory
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com
ALLEN -- The Hebron volleyball team practices blocking almost exclusively in practice each Wednesday.
Maybe this week the Hawks should be given a break as the block was extremely effective Tuesday night in a victory over Allen (26-24, 23-25, 25-18, 25-17) to cap both team's non-district slates.
"We've been working real hard on the block," said Karin Keeney, Hebron head coach, "and it has been showing more and more in our matches."
"Obviously you need the blockers in the middle," Keeney said, "but you also need your girls at the pins to set up the blocks."
Inability to break the block wasn't the only problem Allen had over the final two games as the Lady Eagles also struggled with their serve receive. An ace from freshman Kendall Patterson gave the Hawks the lead at 10-6 in Game 3 and another ace by Patterson established Hebron's largest lead during the set at 22-15.
"Our serve receive was off tonight; we were either too tight or shanking the ball," said Kelley Gregoriew, Allen head coach. "And the same thing is true for pretty much every team: if your serve receive is off, then you can't run your offense and you're going to struggle."
Allen's struggles keyed several multi-point runs for Hebron.
"It seemed like any time they were going on a run coincided with when we weren't passing well," Gregoriew said.
Hebron's offense flowed more smoothly over the final two sets.
And, as was the case with their block, the Hawks attacked with a variety of weapons as Kirch, Williams and Spann all dropped clutch kills in Games 3 and 4 while the team also sprinkled in several tips.
"Offensively, we're working on mixing it up," Keeney said. "And I don't just mean in terms of using more than one hitter. We are also telling the girls that they don't just have to swing, they can tip or they don't just have to tip, they can swing."
While the kills varied, Spann was still the primary source.
The 6-foot-2 senior dropped in the set-clinching kills in Game 3 (25-18) and Game 4 (25-17).
"Obviously we feed [Spann] a lot," Keeney said. "She played very well tonight; and I mean all-around, she played defense and served well for us too."
That Hebron would put Allen away with relative ease in the final two games was a surprise given how close the first two were.
A nip-and-tuck first set was won by the Hawks (26-24).
A similar formula was in store for Game 2. With the set tied at 13-13, Hebron rattled off three straight points only to see Allen counter with a five-point run that was capped by a block from senior Madison Lee and junior Hannah Fry. The Hawks fired back with a point from Kirch out of a timeout, but that only sparked another Allen run with the Lady Eagles winning three straight points and taking a 21-17 lead following an ace by senior Kate Klepetka.
Spann put up three straight blocks on the next point and then finished with a kill on the ensuing point, but Hebron couldn't tie the score.
Holding one-point edges both times, a block from Allen junior Camryn Freiberg accounted for point No. 24 and No. 25 came off a kill from Fry that set the final at 25-23 and evened the match.
Freiberg continued to pile up the kills in the final two sets, but that couldn't compare to the combination of kills from Spann and a multi-faceted Hebron block.
"Both teams needed something going into tough districts," Keeney said, "so this was an important match for us to win."
Hebron begins District 5-5A Friday on the road against defending Class 5A State Champion Coppell. Allen will also be on the road Friday as it opens 10-5A competition at 6 p.m. against Plano East.
"I didn't set up an easy non-district schedule and the girls know that," Gregoriew said. "But the beauty about district starting is we can wash away all the mistakes and start fresh because all of that is gone. We still need to learn from those mistakes though because once we get to Friday, this is it."
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