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Show i i k )n ( Vi The two sides of Nicki Koch. A new movie? No, last Thursday night's volleyball action. Here Koch sets from the back line... photos by Randy Hanskat Miner volleyballers scalp Braves by Randy Hanskat The members of the Park City High School girls' volleyball team resembled a Datsun Z-car commercial commer-cial Thursday night in their match with North Summit at Coalville. They were, in a word, AWESOME! The match was so one-sided that the Braves won only seven points in the two games. And five of those came when the Miners lost their concentration after jumping out to a big lead in the first game. That game wound up 15-6 Park City, while the second was even more of a drubbing at 15-1. The domination was fueled by sharp Park City serving. About half of the Miner serves were not returned by the Braves, and the remainder were not done so with enough accuracy to set up a successful spike. As a result, North Summit attempted only about three spikes on the night, none from good position. Miner Coach Kari Culp said the domination was due to good play on Park City's part. "We played very well. We still missed some serves, but only about half as many as last week," she said. "Our serving in the second game was especially good." In that second game Becky Stover was outstanding from the line. She is usually the team's most consistent server, hitting a low trajectory ball which is difficult to return. And Thursday she was in top form. Stover started off the second game by serving up nine straight points, seven of them unreturned. The other two came back over the net weakly, giving the Miners what is known as a "Free" ball, easily set up for spiking. "Becky's serving really improved this week," Culp said. Stover was also credited with five "good" serves in the first game, serves which helped set up winning points by putting the other team on the defensive. In game one, the Miners jumped out to an 11-1 lead. But then North Summit started making save after save, somehow managing to return the balls. Those long points, lasting maybe 10 hits each, made the Miner players a bit impatient. They stopped setting the balls up, choosing instead to hit the ball over on the second opportunity. That impatience on Park City's part allowed the Braves to tighten the score to 11-6. "Our concentration was broken for a few points in that game," Culp said. "It is hard to keep in a lopsided game such as that one, but it's important to do so because the game is so quick the other team can come back very fast. " After finishing off the Braves in that first game, the Miners came out smoking in the second game. Stover's serving opened up a huge lead, and accurate spiking from Nicki Koch and Tori Pillinger continued the rout. When asked if easy wins such as the North Summit affair may give the Park City players a feeling of overconfidence, Culp said she didn't think so. "Until this week, this team . has been lacking in confidence," she said. The Miners travel to South Rich Thursday for their fourth match of the season. Then she moved to the front line and went on the spiking warpath, whapping both the ball and the Braves. |