Mintz Christian Academy garnered a pair of victories in volleyball and soccer action to remain unbeaten in each sport on the young season.
Volleyball
Entering Monday night’s volleyball showdown both undefeated, either the Liberty Lady Knights or the Mintz Lady Lions were going to walk away from the battle with their first loss of the season. The Lady Knights bested MCA in a razor close first set, but from there, a Lady Lions surge lifted Mintz to a four set 3-1 victory, keeping MCA undefeated.
Monday’s match got out to an inauspicious start for the Lady Lions. Trailing 7-3, Coach Dan Heinz had seen enough and called for a breather. The slow start continued out of the timeout, eventually leading to another timeout as the score sat at 17-9 in favor of Liberty. This time, the short break woke the Lady Lions up. Going on a 14-6 run, Mintz tied the set up at 23-all, but the Lady Knights finished off the set for a 25-23 victory to take a 1-0 lead.
The next three sets, however, saw Mintz get back in to the form of winners of 21 straight games. Taking a 9-2 lead in the second set, Mintz had a large lead that proved difficult for Liberty to overcome, culminating in a 25-16 set victory to even the game at a set apiece.
Mintz continued the momentum into the third set, picking up another 25-16 set win and claim a 2-1 lead over the home team.
The fourth and final period proved to be the nail in the coffin for Liberty. Much wouldn’t go wrong for Mintz in the set, where they grabbed a 16-2 lead. Remarkably, Ciera Ellis served for 17 straight points in the set. This, along with the proven defense of MCA, gave way to a dominating 25-8 fourth set win.
With this victory, Mintz brings their winning streak to 22, dating back to October of 2017.
“That first set was really uncharacteristic for us. It wasn’t so much that Liberty beat us, more than we beat ourselves,” noted MCA’s Heinz.
“In the last three sets, I thought we played much better as a team, had good communication with each other, and started the sets off much better, leading to victories,” Heinz concluded.
With the win, the varsity Lady Lions are now 5-0 on the season and are scheduled to hit the court again on Thursday, against Antioch Christian Academy at home. Game time is set for 20 minutes after the JV game.
Soccer
Following a 2-2 draw against rival Columbus, Mintz was eager for a win over the defending champions at Liberty Christian. After a close battle out on the soccer field, the Lions walked away from contest the victors of a 4-3 final.
Liberty got off to a fast start in the early going, scoring two goals within the game’s first 25 minutes. With the score at 2-0, Mintz needed a goal quick. That goal game courtesy of a handball on a Liberty defender giving way to a PK. Freshman Trey Marshburn stepped up and knocked it through.
A score of 2-1 was settled upon after the first 40-minute period.
Mintz, however, flipped the script on the Knights in the second half. Making some rather big defensive adjustments, MCA had finally figured out how to move the ball into the teeth of the Knights defense.
At the 65th minute, the Lions started an offensive boomlet. Three goals within five minutes really set things in motion for Mintz. Marshburn tallied his second goal of the game and two more goals came from Ashton Brown which handed the Lions their first lead of the game at 4-2.
Before the game went final, Liberty found the back of the net one more time as the buzzer sounded, but it wouldn’t matter, as a 4-3 Mintz win became final.
MCA’s win brings them to 2-0-1 with a date at Scotland Christian Academy awaiting them on Monday.
