Regional volleyball: Ohatchee takes down Vinemont in straight sets

Oct. 25—HUNTSVILLE — Speed kills.

It took Ohatchee volleyball just about an hour to pick up a first-round sweep over Vinemont on Wednesday 25-19, 25-15, 25-10 and move on to the second round of the North Regional.

For Ohatchee coach Rebecca Hughes, the team's fast pace comes with pros and cons.

"It helps you a lot, and it kind of hurts you again, because you don't play again until 3:30, so that's a lot of sitting and a lot of down time," Hughes said. "But, it does save your legs, so it's exciting to come in and make a statement and win quickly in three."

Ohatchee's second set saw the team have streaks of four, five and nine straight points as Ohatchee won 25-15. The team's nine-point scoring marathon lifted the team's lead to 23-12.

The team also had a six-point streak in the third set and held a 20-7 lead before Vinemont scored three straight. Ohatchee scored five straight to close out out.

"I think mostly, it was just we didn't let up, even though we'd already beat them in the first two sets," Hughes said. "It was just a matter of we weren't going to let up and fall apart and just fall apart and play down to their level. We kept playing our game and that just pushed us ahead right there."

Alanah Fitch piled on 28 assists and three services aces to go along with 11 digs. She also had a block.

Becca Henderson led the team offensively with 10 kills, also adding a service ace and a team-high 13 digs. Emily Riddle finished with eight kills along with two digs and a block, and Brett Finn totaled five kills, two service aces, a dig and a block.

"We started off a little shaky, but the more we played, I feel like the more warm we got," Hughes said. "We got to sink into our game and that helped a lot."

Ohatchee will meet Plainview in the second round of the North Regional.

"We were excited to be back here," Hughes said. "We know we've got a lot more work to do, so we were glad to have that game out of the way. I'm proud of them because they finished it in three, pretty quickly. Basically now we're just gearing up for the next game."

Sports Writer Thomas Ashworth: 256-236-1551. On Twitter: @ThomasAshworth0.