By BY BRUCE HIXON – SPORTS EDITOR
T.R. Miller Lady Tigers volleyball coach Sharon Peacock will not make any predictions as to what her team can accomplish the rest of the way.
One thing is for sure. Peacock is feeling a lot better about her team's chances these days than she did a couple of weeks ago. At that time, T.R. Miller had dropped nine of 12 games and stood four games below the .500 mark.
Now the Lady Tigers have won five matches in a row, which includes a dominating 25-12, 25-12, 25-18 win over the visiting Northview Lady Chiefs Thursday. The win boosted T.R. Miller above the .500 mark at 10-9, the first time the Lady Tigers have been above the break-even mark since early in the campaign.
The Lady Tigers had several hot service hands.
Rachel Bostic and Morgan Hubbard carried most of the load in the opener. With T.R. Miller up just 11-9, Bostic gave the Lady Tigers some breathing room with a six-point string that included three aces. Morgan Hubbard, who had a point on her first service, helped the Lady Tigers close it out with four of her team's final five points.
It was Leslie Nalty's turn to get hot in the second set. With the Lady Tigers up 16-12, Nalty followed a defensive point with eight straight points to finish off the set. Nalty had three straight aces in that string.
Michal Hubbard and Courtney Scott had the honor of big service strings in the finale. Hubbard scored the first eight points of the set and later added two more. Northview overcame its slow start in the third set and took a 13-12 lead, but Scott helped T.R. Miller regain its lost momentum with six service points that gave the Lady Tigers a 19-13 lead.
T.R. Miller also had some key hits up front, as Shandreka Foster notched nine kills. Brittany Watson had five kills and a pair of blocks.
T.R. Miller kicks off its final week of regular season play Tuesday with a rematch against Northview at Bratt, Fla.