By DAN HOEHNE
daniel.hoehne@newssun.com
LAKE PLACID - It was sloppy at times, the Lady Titans hung around and Lake Placid didn't score the opening point of a game until the finale - despite all that, the Lady Dragons showed their strength down the stretch in taking their season and district opener over Tenoroc in four games Tuesday night.
"We always start out slow and lose the second game before winning the next two," head coach Linette Wells said. "I don't know if it's the Lake Placid curse or what but we seem to stay on a fine line and can't seem to get out of it."
It played out similarly to their contest against Avon Park in the Sebring Preseason Classic consolation game last Thursday.
The Dragons came out and found themselves in a titanic battle early on as Tenoroc took an early lead and hung around through the midway point of the game.
Alysha Curtis came up big often in the opener to keep Lake Placid afloat, getting two kills, a block and an ace in getting her team to a 9-7 advantage.
The Titans tied it with the next two points, but a couple of mini-runs soon saw the Dragons stretch it to 17-11 with Alana Nielander adding two aces, Marissa Baldwin getting two kills and Taylor Miller tipping one across for a score.
Up 19-13 after a Miller ace, Lake Placid saw Tenoroc fight back to get to within 22-20 before a Curtis block and Nielander ace sealed the 25-20 win.
That was, in fact, the identical score by which the Dragons had topped Avon Park in last Thursday's first game.
History would repeat itself again, though not as exactly, with Tenoroc charging out to a 7-1 lead to start the second game.
Lake Placid came back to close to 7-6 on a Curtis ace, but another run put the Titans back in control at 14-6.
Again the Dragons closed the gap, only to see Tenoroc push it back out and ultimately take a 25-19 win to even the match at a game apiece.
"In the second game I switched some people in, and at practice that group has worked well," Wells said. "But they got off to a slow start. I don't know if it's that their cold coming off the bench, but for some reason that group is fine in practice but didn't seem to click."
The story continued the same way as five days before as Lake Placid then seemed to find themselves and play like the five-time district champs they are, having an easier time in 25-16 and 25-12 wins to close it out.
And wouldn't you know it, after a match that played out very much like their contest against Avon Park, Lake Placid headed up Hwy. 27 to face the Lady Devils again Thursday night in district action.
"We're going to work on our coverage," Wells said. "As well as our serving. I don't know how many points we gave up tonight on our serves. Avon Park also has some hitters, so we'll be working on our blocking as well."
Nielander lead the Lake Placid hitters with 12 kills with Kylie Weber setting up 25 assists.
Curtis' big night at the net included seven blocks as well as nine aces while Brittany Collison shored up the back line of the defense with 14 digs.
Friday, September 03, 2010 - www.newssun.com/FRI-9-3-LPVB