Story by Keighley Ehmsen and Annika Wasson

Photos by Kierra Zapf, Cora Bern-Klug and Micah Cabbage

Intensity is always high when cross town rivals City High and West High face off in the annual Battle of the Spike. This year’s game proved to be no different. Battling through five sets, the Little Hawks lost a close match to the Women of Troy 2-3.

The Little Hawks came out strong in the first set, rallying at the end to win 25-21.

In the second set Shannon James ‘17 was taken out of the game due to an injury and didn’t return for the rest of the match. Becca Meyer ‘15 replaced James as an outside hitter for the remainder of the set. A combination of the change in line up and untimely missed serves resulted in a 13-25 loss for the Little Hawks.

After regrouping and finalizing the line up with Jamie Young ‘15 as a middle hitter and Allison Fleming ‘14 moving to the outside, City played a close set with the Women of Troy and ultimately came out on top by a score of 26-24.

In the fourth set a long service rally by West put the Little Hawks in the ten point hole which they could not overcome. They dropped that game 13-25.

With the Spike on the line, both teams came out in the deciding set with even more intensity. The Women of Troy held a 11-6 lead when Fleming’s kill gave the momentum to go on a 4-0 rally tying the score at 11. However the momentum was not enough to win the rivalry match. West High won the Spike for the second year in a row narrowly taking the fifth set 16-14.
City’s record is now 12-8 and are 3-3 in the Mississippi Valley Conference. The Little Hawks could have a rematch against the Women of Troy at the MVC tournament on October 19th.