High School Sports: Knights Remain Undefeated in Volleyball With Win Over Liberty

In front of a large and loud home crowd, downed 3-0 in volleyball Tuesday evening.

The game is more than bragging rights between the two neighboring schools. The coaches are brother and sister.

"Not only is it my brother, it’s a rivalry," said Century coach Becky Groves. "I mean it is always a game no matter who I have or who he has on the team.  It’s always a game, so they knew to get their game faces on and get ready to play."

The Knights won 25-18, 27-25 and 25-19.  Liberty never had a lead in the first match, but came out hard in the second game and held a four-point lead 22-18.

Century came back to take a one-point lead 23-22, but Liberty wouldn’t give up. The Lions roared back to take a 25-24 lead, before Century closed out the match with two points.

"When you are up 13-8 and 22-18, you should beat a team," said Liberty coach Bryan Trumbo. "That has been our problem all year. We just can’t close out game and finish it. Volleyball is very psychological and very mental and we need to get over it."

"I think coming back in a game like that really kills the other team and we had a lot of seniors out on the court that are mentally tough and mentally strong. Even through we were down four or five points they still knew we were in that game," said Groves.

The third match opened with Century taking a 7-0 lead behind the serving of senior Morgan Thomas. Liberty again hung in there and was able to cut away the lead to only be down by three, 15-12. The Lions couldn’t get any closer as the home team won the contest.

Abby Thrift led the Knights with 15 kills, while teammates Thomas had seven and Haley Bordner had six. Sophomore setter Hailey Thrift had 27 assists. Anna Collins had 12 digs and Steph Whealton had 11.

"We are right where we want to be in the regular season. Honesty I would rather lose to Century during the regular season and beat them in the regional finals," said Trumbo. "That’s our goal. I mean we are right with the top teams. We are with Century and we have Williamsport the next game. All quality programs. All very tough and great players. We have some young outsides and are still jelling."

Century is 4-0 in the county and 6-0 overall. The Lions took their first county loss to stand at 3-1 and 3-3 overall.