Felicity-Franklin’s Bethany Perkins is the Lady Cardinals’ tallest player and one of their best players at the net.

Felicity-Franklin’s Bethany Perkins is the Lady Cardinals’ tallest player and one of their best players at the net.
By Chris Chaney
Sun staff

Despite a mediocre regular season in 2013, the Felicity-Franklin Lady Cardinals were able to come together for a strong postseason run that saw the team advance to a sectional final.

That late-season chemistry and a returning core of standouts has the Lady Cardinals enjoying the fruits of that success just over halfway through the 2014 regular season. They sit just a half-game out of first place in the Southern Buckeye Conference National Division.

“We have pretty much everybody back (from last year),” Felicity head coach Damon Smith said. “We have six girls who play the whole game and a libero who subs in at times.”

Bethany Perkins, MiKayla Hamilton, Allie Rodriguez, Ashley Moore, Brittany Drake and Taylor Howerton get the lion’s share of the playing time while Lauren Mitchell, Marissa Cochran, Paige Cummins and Morgan Smith come on as substitutes for Smith’s squad.

The Lady Cardinals are 10-3 overall and 4-1 in the SBC-National with their lone league loss coming to first-place Clermont Northeastern on Sept. 9 in a straight-sets defeat. The Lady Rockets, who boast a 13-1 record, basically out hit and blocked the smaller frontline of the Lady Cardinals, Smith said.

“We’re not overly tall,” Smith said. “Perkins is probably our biggest player and it drops in height from there.”

Perkins and Moore, primarily, use their athletic ability to play at the net against taller opponents, out jumping them and getting solid hits on the ball.

Rodriguez is the primary facilitator for the Felicity, leading the team in assists while also doing an admirable job defensively and from the service line. Smith also made mention of Mitchell, a sophomore who can play all the way around for the Lady Cardinals.

“The group has really learned to play well together,” Smith expounded. “Being short in stature that we are, we use our athleticism to get to the ball pretty well. We’ve changed our defense up a little bit this year and they’ve adjusted well to that.

“Any one of the girls can hit even being small as they are. Our biggest opposition tends to come when we face team who has good blockers.”

Smith said that when teams have big blockers, his team tends to hit further back from the net, which makes it easier for opponents to dig their less-potent kill attempts.

Nevertheless, the Lady Cardinals stout defense keeps them in most matches. Smith said with the gauntlet of bigger schools coming in before winding down the season in the National Division, he would like to see his team deal better with the bigger girls at the net.

“We have to step it up a little bit playing (the bigger schools),” he said. “If we can put it together and hang with them and pull of a couple wins, that would be big for us.”

The Lady Cardinals were not able to keep up with Amelia on Monday, falling in three games, but have proven that they can beat Norwood, who they faced on Tuesday.

Smith hopes to string together a few more matches travelling to Goshen, Blanchester, east to Peebles and finally to Bethel-Tate before hosting two of their last three matches at home.

Felicity’s senior night game will be on Oct. 8 when Clermont Northeastern visits the Lady Cardinals, likely with conference title implications on the line.