FARMINGTON -- Farmington's talented 6-feet-1 junior middle hitter Kaycee McCumber isn't discounting the fact that sometimes miracles come in small doses.
Farmington's big sister program, associating varsity players with younger girls out for volleyball paid sweet dividends for Lady Cardinal fans in Thursday's 25-14, 25-23, 25-18 sweep of Huntsville.
McCumber dominated the front line, topping the Lady Cardinals with 10 kills, 8 blocks and 3 aces, in a match she wasn't certain she'd get to play after rolling her ankle during a road win at Ozark on Tuesday, Sept. 12.
"We're like big sisters to some seventh, eighth, and ninth-grade volleyball girls, so one of my little sisters for volleyball [Lacey Schulte], she told me that she prayed for me and made sure it was all healed so I'm good," McCumber said.
Schulte's a freshman and didn't hesitate to let McCumber know she's got somebody reaching out with their faith to combine with hers and that prayer obviously got answered because McCumber got out on the court against Huntsville two days later and played effectively.
"I can't wait to play with her next year and then my other little sister, Logan Davis, I can't wait to play with her, too. They're both really great," McCumber said.
Classmate Samantha Brye chipped in 9 kills, 3 aces, and 2 blocks.
"Kaycee McCumber had a huge night for us with 10 kills, Samantha Brye with 9. They both played exceptional. I thought our back row did a good job getting the ball to our setters. it was a good team effort," said Farmington coach Kyle Moad.
It's a plus that those two six-footers can both serve effectively in addition to making things tough at the net for opponents.
"They both serve and to be honest with you they both can play all the way around. Kaycee can play back row if we needed her to, but I just chose to give her a break and have her fresh on the front row. That's a choice I make," Moad said.
Brye dished up 3 aces as she served the Lady Cardinals to an 8-0 lead in the opening set of the match.
"I just wanted to get us ahead. We started the game and they were down so I just kept serving," Brye said.
Huntsville's a scrappy bunch and they made Farmington stick with it. The Lady Eagles used a 5-0 run to narrow the Lady Cardinals' lead to 16-11 in the first set.
Farmington libero Katie Fleming described the action from her point of view on the court.
"I think they're a great team and they have a lot of great athletes on their team. I'm just glad that we were able to power through and stick together and beat them," Fleming said.
Coming out of a time-out Farmington reeled off a 9-3 run of its own to wrap up the first set, 25-14.
Senior Cailey Ramaker's kill sparked the run. She approaches the season with a dual set of goals.
"I want to win state, of course. I also just want to make a lot of good memories," Ramaker said.
Huntsville landed a kill in the right corner to make it 21-14, but the Lady Cardinals didn't let them hang around.
The combination of Alexys Baldwin (dig), Brye (set) and McCumber (kill) scored. McCumber pounded a second straight kill followed by Ramaker's ace to bring the Lady Cardinals to game-point. Huntsville missed a hit on the next volley and game one belonged to Farmington, 25-14.
Huntsville scrapped together a 15-9 run and opened up an 18-12 lead, but all that did was make Farmington mad.
The Lady Cardinals rallied with a 13-5 run of their own to close out game two and win 25-23.
"Yes it was a big run. Yeah, we needed that. We fought back. We keep talking about how we have to overcome when we get down and they really did. They fought back tonight at the times when we needed them to and I was proud of that effort," Moad said.
McCumber admitted the deficit didn't sit well with the team.
"We didn't like how they were getting up on us because we know we are the better team. We wanted to win more than them so we put everything that we had into winning," McCumber said.
McCumber served a pair of aces, sandwiched around Ramaker's back-row kill to knot the score at 18-18. There were ties at 19, 20, 21 and 23 but Farmington wasn't fooling around. Ramaker stroked a kill to bring the Lady Cardinals to game-point, leading 24-23, and with the heat on Huntsville folded by hitting the ball off the court, giving game-two to Farmington, 25-23.
Mabry Webb's numbers weren't big (1 ace, 1 kill), but she was quietly effective, experiencing only 2 serving errors out of a dozen serves and hit .333 with no errors.
"I just want to get my blocks and I want to get my hits every game. That's what I try for and to keep the team together and to lead the team," Webb said.
Farmington won game-three, 25-18, to sweep the match. The Lady Cardinals were 5-4 overall and 3-2 in the 4A-1 coming into this week.
Mark Humphrey/Enterprise-Leader/Farmington starters (from left), Kaycee McCumber, Mabry Webb, Cailey Ramaker, Katie Fleming, Courtney Scogin and Alexys Baldwin salute the United States' flag prior to the Lady Cardinals' 3-set sweep of Huntsville (25-14, 25-23, 25-18) on Thursday, Sept. 14 at Cardinal Arena.
Mark Humphrey/Enterprise-Leader/Farmington junior Samantha Brye had 9 kills with only one hitting error and added three blocks in the Lady Cardinals' 25-14, 25-23, 25-18 sweep of Huntsville on Thursday, Sept. 14.