Cape falls to Riders on technicality, grounds the Ravens
Cape defeated the Caesar Rodney Riders in five sets Oct. 20 at Camden, but the closely contested win was taken away on a technicality, when it was discovered the Lady Vikings had played a JV player in the match due to an injury of a starter. She had already played two games of JV. The rule is that you can only play five sets in a day, so instead of a 15-12 fifth set win, the Vikings were saddled with a 15-0 loss.
“The Caesar Rodney match was an extremely tough game, and I was thrilled to see our girls come back to battle it out and win that fifth set. That was one of the most enjoyable environments we've played in all season,” said head coach Tyler Coupe. “Their fans brought the noise and we did our best to feed off that and use the energy to push ourselves through.
Unfortunately because of an error that I made and not knowing all the rules in using an illegal player, we had to forfeit the win. I want to thank CR for the respect they demonstrated during this situation. And more importantly I want to apologize to our team and school. My mistake took a win away from a team that did everything we as coaches asked of them, and I couldn't be more sorry. In following the same attitude we tell our team, I am going to own my mistake, learn from it and figure out going forward how to continue to make our team better.”
Logan Shuttleworth added to her growing total of assists by setting up her teammates with 40 in the contest. Taylor Collier scored a double 16, posting 16 kills and 16 digs. Teaghan VanBrunt had 15 digs for Cape, while Abby E‘Nama and Maddy Holt each had seven kills and six digs. Sophia Spinelli tallied six kills and seven digs.
The Vikings continued their friendly but intense rivalry with Sussex Tech Oct. 21, defeating the Ravens 25-22, 26-24, 22-25, 24-26 and 15-10 before a large and vocal crowd on Prevent Child Abuse Delaware Night Oct. 21 at Cape.
E’Nama dominated at the net, downing 12 kills for the Vikings while serving six aces from behind the service line. Taylor Collier delivered eight kills, while Spinelli, Shuttleworth and Maddy Holt downed seven, six and five kills, respectively. Collier, Shuttleworth and Spinelli teamed for 42 digs.
“The game with Tech was a tough one,” said Coupe. “I'm so proud of our girls to walk out with a five-set win. After going five sets less than 20 hours before and to do it again speaks volumes to the work ethic they have instilled in themselves.
“Losing Cailey Thornburg in the CR match to an ankle injury was tough not only because of her skill set, but her leadership abilities. For not having practiced fully with us yet, I'm thrilled with how Phelisha Scott looked and am excited to get her more acclimated with our team. It was a great team win in which every player contributed both on and off the court. I think the sets we lost we were careless with the ball and made way too many service and hitting errors. The sets we were winning we kept the ball in play and continued to apply pressure to their defense. Having played nine games in three weeks is extremely difficult, especially when in each week we went back to back games at some point.”
I'm hoping our players are able to rest up and get rejuvenated as we head into our final week of play.
Cape travels to Dover Tuesday, Oct. 25, before finishing the regular season with Seaford Oct. 27.
