Eisenhower notched a school-record 30^th win in volleyball Tuesday at the Campbell Center, beating Nimitz in three straight, 25-11, 25-21, 25-18 in its final district match of the season.

Despite Nimitz’s efforts to slow down the pace a bit with its setting game, the Cougars were no match for Eisenhower’s Clarissa Moore and Karensa Beckford or the rest of the Eagles. Nimitz rallied gamely in the third and final game of the match, leading for part of the contest as the Eisenhower offense committed several errors, but in the end, the Eagle hitting attack proved too strong.

Eisenhower assistant coach Shawne LeDee said afterwards that, although the team had come close in recent seasons to getting 30 victories, this was the school’s first time to achieve the feat in volleyball.

“We’re very proud of that,” she said.

The Eagles, 30-5 overall, finished in third place in the tough District 19-5A behind Memorial and Stratford with a 12-4 record. They now turn their sights to playoffs where they will play the District 20-5A representative.

“We have a good chance. We’re really playing together, like one unit," Beckford said.

Moore and Beckford led all hitters with 13 and 11 kills respectively, while Jamie Johnson added another nine for the Eagles. Nimitz’s Breanna Sterling led the Cougars with seven kills in the match.

For most of the match, Nimitz was content to rely on a passing game behind its agile setter Sade Kelly, whose serves and sets over the net sometimes took Eisenhower by surprise. Unfortunately, though the slower game sometimes threw the Eagle hitting game off track and both teams struggled at times in getting their serves in bounds, the defensive efforts of the Cougars’ Rachelle Harris, Gloria Johnson, Kragina Wilson and Kelly weren’t enough. Nimitz couldn’t seem to get the few spikes they tried to fall, and the Cougars also lost Gloria Johnson early in the first game to a knee injury.

Still, Nimitz managed to use Eisenhower mistakes to close the gap in the first game to 14-9 at one point, but the Cougars could get no closer.

In the second match, the Eagles broke open a close match behind spikes by Jamie Johnson and Beckford despite the solid blocking of Wilson and her teammates. The Cougars managed to hang close, staying within three points of Eisenhower through most of the game and fighting back to tie the game up at 21. They could get no further, however, as they failed to handle a Beckford serve and Moore drove home the win with yet another kill.

Nimitz put forth its best effort in the third game, pulling ahead of Eisenhower at 12-11 as Sterling blocked a Jazmin Wilson spike. Kristel Jack and Breyana Brown also provided defensive help at the net. With Kelly keeping the Eisenhower offense off balance with her serves, the Cougars looked poised to win one, but it wasn’t meant to be as the Eagles tied the game at 15-15 and took the lead for good on another Moore spike off a Nimitz block.

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