St. Johns – The St. Johns County School District saw an opportunity to relieve overcrowding at Bartram Trail High School in the 2008-2009 school year by opening Creekside High School. Although the teams are in different classifications and districts, all of that didn’t matter last Thursday, as the game between heated rivals can best be described metaphorically as WAR! The contest saw the Creekside Lady Knights, capture a victory over the Bartram Trail Lady Bears in 4 sets to serve notice that the little sister school can indeed play with the big sister school.
Sophomore outside hitter Klaire VanDeusen started off the game with a kill for the Bartram Lady Bears trying to turn down the volume in the home team Creekside’s gym early. The beginning of the first set was back and forth with each team scoring a point, then losing a point. The Lady Knights started to pull away after an outstanding solo block by sophomore middle hitter Isabella Collier and four straight service points by freshman setter Tyler Patterson to bring the score to 6-2.
The front line of Collier, junior outside hitter Jylisa Myers and junior Captain outside hitter Jaden McBride dominated and didn’t allow for the Lady Bears to get any easy points, making all of their shots hard to position. Every time Creekside would start to pull further and further away from Bartram, VanDeusen would come up big on a swing and kill momentum immediately. Errors caused the Lady Bears back to back points in a pivotal part of the first set allowing the Lady Knights to maintain the lead 17-13.
McBride played it smart during this part of the set, not trying to swing hard and fast but using dink and roll shots to slow down the tempo. The Lady Bears lost three of the last five points in the set off of their own errors. Junior setter Kaitlyn Helinsky did a wonderful job of passing the ball to everyone and mixing things up on the last point of the set before junior outside hitter Samantha Byrd was able to slam the ball down to the ground and capture the first set for the Lady Knights.
Set 2 was underway and things looked to be going downhill for the Lady Bears once again, but after some controversial touch calls by the referee, the Lady Bears were able to tie it up at four against Creekside. Senior Libero Gaby Taveras asserted herself as a true leader in this set of the match, no ball was unreachable, running from sideline to sideline covering the court. She led by example and her team soon followed, junior outside hitter Sarah Williamson started to warm up in a big way putting the Lady Bears up 14-11.
Creekside’s McBride got up to serve and hit a five point swing in favor of Creekside which put them up by two and caused for Bartram to call a quick timeout. After a couple bad swings by Creekside, Bartram was now up 20-18. The battle began of tit for tat points tied up at 24. Bartram would end up winning the set off of a line shot by senior outside hitter Sammy Sicoli.
The match was now tied one a piece in this rivalry game. Williamson came out swinging first for the Lady Bears netting the first kill of the set. Creekside answered back with a Collier-Helinsky block followed by a ten-foot line hit by Collier had the crowd roaring. Tied at 13, sophomore setter Annie Dill hit a big service ace to put the momentum back in the favor of the Lady Bears. After another Creekside mistake, Coach Bowers called a timeout and talked a new life into the Lady Knights.
They came out of the timeout fired up but would go point for point with Bartram trying to climb back out of their hole. Junior defensive specialist Karis Ginder had a great serve that helped keep the Lady Bears up 19-17 against the home team. Communication was lacking on the Lady Knights side of the ball, allowing the Lady Bears score on an easy free ball. The Lady Knights clawed back and didn’t allow for the Lady Bears to score another point winning the set 25-19 off of another Byrd kill.
The atmosphere was electric all you could hear was “C-R-E-E-K-S-I-D-E”, as the football players jumped on each letter spelling out the home teams name to amp up the girls even more. Bartram Trail tied it up at 3 after a Creekside communication error allowed for a Bartram Trail service ace by Williamson. Creekside came back and took the lead after three straight service points by Helinsky. The set continued to go back and forth with points before being tied up again at 13 after a service ace by the Lady Bears.
Byrd puts Creekside up after a massive kill to the open space at the back-right corner. The Lady Bears tie it up at 16 but after back to back errors they are now down 20-18. After a quick timeout and some quicker points, the score is now Creekside up 21-18 but a smart play by Patterson, pushing the ball past the defenders to an open area. Creekside would go on to win the set and the match 25-21.
Creekside was led in kills by Byrd with 12, digs by McBride with 17 and setters Patterson and Helinsky totaled 37 assists. Bartram Trail was led by Williamson with 11, followed closely behind by Sicoli with 9. Dill led with a game high 41 assists and Taveras with 17 digs.
Bartram Trail will have their chance for redemption against Creekside on September 26th at their home gym. Both teams will be on the road on Tuesday, September 3rd. Creekside (3-1) will take on Bishop Kenny (0-3) and Bartram Trail (1-2) will take on St. Augustine (2-2).
