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Spain Park celebrated senior night on Tuesday, Oct. 9, and picked up a win against area foe John Carroll in the process. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

HOOVER – It was a celebratory night for the Spain Park Jaguars’ volleyball team on Tuesday, Oct. 29, who not only got to celebrate three special seniors on senior night, but also got to celebrate a 3-1 (25-18, 25-12, 24-26, 25-15) victory against the John Carroll Catholic Cavaliers. 

It was a special way for Lora Watkins, Sha’Kevia Hogan and Allie DeSantis to wind down their final regular season with Spain Park as the three seniors played a part in leading the Jags to a victory against a solid Area 6 opponent.

The Jags, who are in solid shape heading into the area tournament in less than two weeks, continued what has been a more than impressive 2018 volleyball season with an easy victory.

Despite dropping the third set, it was a set that saw them tied at 24-24 with a chance to pull off the sweep, before John Carroll forced a fourth set that Spain Park was able to win going away to close out the win.

In the first set, Spain Park jumped out to a lead and, while John Carroll attempted to pull from behind, pulled away for the opening-set victory late to win 25-18 to grab a 1-0 advantage in the match.

You could sense the confidence that gave the Jaguars, who responded to a first-set win with an even more dominant effort in the second set.

Spain Park played well from start to finish in the second set, before eventually running away to a 13-point, 25-12 victory, its largest of the three sets won by the Jags.

Playing so well, Spain Park may have gotten a little ahead of itself in the third set and had a little bit of a setback.

While the Jaguars struggled to sustain a run throughout the set, they still almost pulled off the win and a sweep of the match. Tied at 24, however, the Cavaliers were fighting for their lives in the match and ended up winning two consecutive points to stay alive with a 26-24 third-set win.

Despite the loss, Spain Park still had the advantage in the match and knew sustaining any sort of run would likely lead to a victory.

In the fourth set, that was the case, as the Jags were able to play much more like they did in the first two sets thanks to consistency offensively and defensively. Eventually, they pulled away for an easy 10-point, 25-15 win in the set to win the match by a final of 3-1.

The Jags will have one more home game, one more road tri-match and one more weekend tournament during the regular season before competing in the area tournament the week of Oct. 22.

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