The Firestone Lady Falcons completed an undefeated first half of the City Series Volleyball schedule with a win over the Buchtel Lady Griffins 25-11, 25-9 and 25-21 Thursday night at Firestone High School.
 
The Falcons first half record is 6-0, while Buchtel finishes the first half at 2-4.
 
Firestone has the proverbial target on their back after having won the City Series Volleyball championship the last three years in a row.  (2008, 2009 and 2010)
 
Lady Falcons head coach Stacie Myers says “I’m confident in the Lady Falcons, and I think that we’ll get the job done again this year.”  In order for the Falcons to have an undefeated second half, Myers said “we need to stay disciplined and work hard.”
 
In the first game, Buchtel scored the first point, but Firestone ran off the next six points on the serve of junior co-captain Paige Gravenstein.  Included in that six-point run, were two service aces by Gravenstein.  Later on in game One, Gravenstein had two more service aces.
 
In Game Two, Gravenstein had three service aces, plus a couple of kills.  Firestone’s Libero,  Jordan Jernigan,  did the job on the back line setting up Gravenstein and Sara Davis.  The Lady Falcons controlled play at the net, leading at one point 11-1.
 
Gravenstein says she works on her serving all the time.  “Coach makes serving really important.  Whenever we miss a serve, we have to run a suicide drill. Sometimes I put top spin on the serve and sometimes that can throw teams off.”
 
But, the Lady Griffins did not go quietly.  They fought back in the third game.  Ashaunte Dent started on serve and got the first four points of the game for Buchtel.  The Lady Griffins held a 7-5 lead before Firestone got their act together.  It was Gravenstein who led the comeback.  Two straight kills by the junior tied the game at seven.  Later in the game, two more kills by Gravenstein and three by Davis put the match in the win column for Firestone. 
 
Buchtel head coach Francine Blake says her team learned a lot from the match.  While she was disappointed in the first two games, Blake says her team ‘played well’ in the third game.
 
Firestone’s record is 7-1 overall, 6-0 in the City Series.  Buchtel’s record is 5-5 overall and 2-4 in the City Series.