Apex turns the tide against Green Hope volleyball

The Southwest Wake Athletic Conference volleyball race hasn’t been this undecided, this late in the season, in years. So while we know this – Apex’s 3-1 defeat of Green Hope on Thursday (22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-18) was big – we don’t yet know what it means.

It wasn’t quite an elimination game for the SWAC’s three automatic playoff bids and it wasn’t a conference-clincher by any means. Fuquay-Varina and Panther Creek are still tied for tops in the league.

Even with two or three games left, the top four teams in the SWAC could finish anywhere from first to fourth.

“Our conference is so competitive. I think this is the craziest year we’ve had,” Apex coach Emily Regan said.

Turning point

Green Hope (12-6, 9-4) and Apex (14-5, 11-3) were fighting tooth-and-nail in the first set, which Green Hope claimed, all the way deep into the second. Then Apex caught fire as Abigail Veit and Natalie White scored seven of their team’s points in a surging 12-2 run to go from down 17-13 to winning the second set and tying the match 1-all with a 25-19 win.

“I think, as a team, we learned from the first set,” Veit said. “In the past we’ve missed a ton of serves and it lost us our last game against Green Hope so we made sure we got them in so it wouldn’t hurt us.”

They said it

“It’s been a weird season, but it’s been fun, every single set. If you go back and look at the point differentials, they’re all pretty close all the way up to a certain point and there’s that little jump at the end,” Green Hope coach Karl Redelfs said.

Three who mattered

Abigail Veit, Apex: Western Carolina recruit had a game-high 19 kills for the Cougars.

“One thing (Veit) has been working on is being a leader and I really saw that tonight,” Regan said.

Allison O’Connor, Green Hope: Efficient like always, the senior had 11 kills and three blocks.

Madeline Rudd, Apex: Only a freshman, she had 11 kills in a big match.

By the numbers

3: The largest lead for either team in the first game was three points, when Green Hope clinched it 25-22.

12-2: Apex ended the second game on a 12-2 run after trailing 17-13.

5: Natalie White (eight kills, four blocks) had five of the Cougars’ last eight points in the second game.

9: Green Hope’s Abby Kott had nine kills and four blocks.

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 10:51 AM with the headline "Apex turns the tide against Green Hope volleyball."