By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
YEATESVILLE — No matter what the sport, whenever Four River Conference rivals Southside and Northside collide the intensity will always be there. Thursday’s volleyball match was no different as the two school clashed in three hard fought games with the Seahawks standing tall at the end winning 25-22, 25-22, 25-19.
“It’s a real big win,” Southside coach Elizabeth Pruden said. “We took a step up from the way we played Riverside on Tuesday. We just did not show up for Riverside on Tuesday, but tonight we really showed up. We really improved our game.
Southside (5-9,3-5) got a tremendous effort from Atyana Starkie, Valerie Ruffin and Renikia Hodges, who fought hard up front with Northside’s quality net players Jordan Woolard, Jordan Cooke, Sarah Cradle and Rachel Hollowell.
The Panthers (8-5, 2-3) held leads in all three games, but could not close out the Seahawks on Thursday. Northside coach Mandi McGaha said she was pleased with the play of her team.
“I thought we gave a pretty good effort, they were close games,” McGaha said. “I thought Jordan Woolard played really well and Sarah Cradle had some pretty good serves. Mariah Hawkins made some good passes tonight.”
The main battle was at the net where Southside tried to neutralize Northside’s duo of Woolard and Hollowell.
“(Northside) has its two big girls in the lineup at the same time and they both come off the front line at the same time,” Pruden said. “So I just tried to put my biggest hitters up there when there girls were at the front line.”
Northside will be back in action on Tuesday when it hosts Plymouth, while Southside will be at Camden.