Carpenter and Sharks Chomp Bears in Three Sets

The Nature Coast Tech Sharks (4-3) swept the Central Bears (1-10) on the road on Tuesday night. Despite taking the matchup in three sets, it was not all smooth sailing for the visitors. The first two periods were relatively easygoing following some runs in each, but the third and final frame was anything but.

The Bears gave the Sharks everything they could handle before falling short in the third, but Senior Addison “Addy” Carpenter felt that the squad may have “let off the heat a little bit” after winning the first two sets comfortably. Nature Coast Head Coach Emily Gore agreed.

“I think sometimes when you go up 2-0, you have that tendency to mentally relax, which is not a good thing because obviously Central is going to keep fighting,” Coach Gore said. “They’re not going to just give up. They had their crowd behind them […] the serving errors in set three really hurt us because we would make a good play and get a serve, and we just give it right back to them. So, that was frustrating.”

Through the adversity, the visitors clutched out the win. That is not to take anything away from the Bears. They fought tooth and nail to make the Columbia Blue and Black regret every mistake in that final set, and it made for exciting volleyball.

“It was definitely hectic,” Carpenter said. “I feel like we should have put ourselves in a better position to finish out, but we finished strong, we gave it our all, and we pulled out the win.”

The first two periods went swimmingly for the Sharks. After a brief back and forth, Carpenter and company turned a 7-7 tie into a 20-10 advantage in a hurry enroute to a 25-13 victory in set one. The penultimate frame went similarly as they jumped out to an 8-2 lead early before taking it 25-15.

Set three was immediately different as the Bears would open their first multi-point lead of the evening in the early moments. Nature Coast fell down 4-1 on the opening plays and would fail to grab momentum at various points due in no small part to serving errors. Whether they sailed out of bounds or hit the net, the visitors committed nine of these. That is when Carpenter took over.

The senior came up big in the final moments as she was responsible for 3 of her team’s final 5 points, and two of those were kills. She would contribute tremendously throughout the night as well to the tune of 20 points (many of them kills) with half of them happening during the gutsy performance in the final frame.

“She’s obviously a leader for us on the court,” Coach Gore noted. “She’s just that kid that always does everything right. So, when she’s got things going, our team is better. Yeah, she’s great.”

Carpenter was not the only highlight on the night. Sophomore Jalena Hathorn scored 4 aces early in the second to help the Sharks jump out to a 5-0 lead, and she blasted a key kill after a long rally late in the third to put her team up by 2. Sophomore Kristina Addy was directly responsible for three scores in the final period, and none were more important than her block directly followed by a kill to take the set 28-26.

This hard-fought sweep may have been just what the doctor ordered for Nature Coast coming off 3-1 and 3-0 losses in back-to-back games. They will look to carry this momentum onward with fewer hiccups when they again travel across the county to face the Weeki Wachee Hornets on Thursday night. The Bears will also play an in-county team on Thursday as they will face off against the Classical Prep Lions at 6:00.