Franklin rallies after slow start, tops Greenwood

Thrown off its game by an emotional senior night ceremony, Franklin started off its volleyball match against county rival Greenwood with three errors in the first five points and trailed early in the first set.

But once the Grizzly Cubs settled down, it was lights out for Greenwood as Franklin rolled to an easy 25-13, 25-11, 25-11 win Tuesday at home.

“It was senior night and there was a lot of emotions from the seniors. It doesn’t surprise me at all that they started like that,” Franklin coach Roxanne Chapman said. “The girls were emotional about their one senior and they’re going to miss Alyvia (Sundheimer), but it was a good conference win for us and the girls are playing strong. It was a nice team win.”

Franklin (19-3, 5-0 MSC) scored the first point of the match on a Brooklyn Peddycord serving ace, but Greenwood scored the next four — thanks to those three Cub errors — to go ahead 4-1.

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It proved to be the high-water mark of the match for Woodmen, but they stayed ahead for several more points, holding their last lead at 10-9. Isabell Mahin recorded a kill to tie the set for Franklin, and a passing error by Greenwood gave the Cubs the lead for good.

A massive eight-point serving streak by Mahin blew open the set for Franklin.

There was no slow start for the Grizzly Cubs in the next two sets. Franklin opened the second with four straight points, and led 7-1 and 10-4 before cruising to the 25-11 win. The third set was even more lopsided, with Franklin starting out with leads of 10-1 and 20-9.

Greenwood coach Amanda Ratliff said that while Franklin was certainly a strong team, her squad also made its fair share of mistakes in the three-set loss.

“This has definitely been a learning year for us. We’re working on a lot of things, including the girl-girl relationships with each other and the coaching staff,” Ratliff said. “We’ve had some position changes here lately with losing our setter last week. So we’re working through a lot of things. We saw a lot of good, but we also saw a lot of things to work on.”

Brooke Phillips went 22 for 22 serving with six aces and added four kills and 27 assists for Franklin. Mahin had six kills and five aces for the Grizzly Cubs, who had 19 aces overall. Sundheimer and Livi Brown finished with nine and eight kills, respectively.

Gaby Oakes was 9-for-9 serving and Alyssa Stilley was 6-for-6 serving with three kills for Greenwood (9-17, 2-3).