North Vermilion win first playoff volleyball match

The North Vermilion Lady Patriots Volleyball Team took care of their first round match by beating DeQuincy, 25-17, 25-21 and 25-14.
On Monday the No. 13 seed Lady Patriots travel to New Orleans to play No. 4 seed Urusline Academy (32-8) in the second round of the playoffs. Urusline drew a bye in the first round.
For volleyball coach Kirby Meyers, it was his first playoff win as a new head coach. He was worried about his team overlooking DeQuincy because the Lady Patriots had already beaten them twice this year.
“That was a concern of mine,” said Meyers. “But the last two days of practice, they practiced well. That eased my worry.”
Meyers was feeling good early in the first set when NVHS jumped out to a 4-1 lead but DeQuincy rallied back and cut NV’s lead to 7-6.
The good news is that North Vermilion never gave up the lead in the first set and at one time, led 18-8. But then NV began committing errors and let DeQuincy back in the set, 19-13.
Meyers called time out. The time out worked and the Lady Patriots outscored DeQuincy 6-4 to win the set.
Meyers said his team is known to jump out ahead, get comfortable with the lead and then watch it slip away.
The second set was different than the first one. This time, DeQuincy jumped out to an 8-3 lead but the Lady Pats got back into the match. Senior Claire Meyers had two nice saves to keep the Lady Patriots in it.
Freshman Reagan Patin sparked the Lady Patriots with a block and a kill that tied it 10-10.
North Vermilion went up 11-10 and stretched it to 13-10 on a Zoe Graham kill.
DeQuincy closed within two points, 19-17, and one point, 21-20 but never took the lead.
Graham and Taylor Stelly each had big kills to hold off DeQuincy’s rally.
In the final set, North Vermilion jumped out to a 10-4 lead on Claire Meyer’s two serves and two kills.
Reagan, Patin and Stelly each had kills in the final set.