Sitting in the King’s Fork High bleachers last Friday, Gillian Giarrizzo watched her school’s football team bring home its first-ever victory. Four days later, the sophomore Lady Bulldog knew she’d have a chance to snare her own spot in school history.

&uot;I thought that if the football team could win, we definitely could,&uot; said Giarrizzo, whose volleyball team went winless last year, grabbing just one game in the entire season. &uot;We had to feed off the football team.&uot;

On Tuesday evening, they did; Rachel Bailor smacked home and Margaret Farris five as the Lady Bulldogs grabbed the first win in school history, defeating host Lakeland 25-23, 25-19, 14-25, 25-20.

Fork raced to an 8-4 lead in the first, but the Lady Cavalier tied the score at nine on an ace by Katie DeVenuto, who banged over two more on her way to serving her squad to a 12-9 lead. The teams rallied as Cherelle Shelton tipped over one point and spiked another for Lakeland, but DeVenuto’s next serve hit the net, giving Giarrizzo a shot behind the line, trailing 22-16.

Her first serve was an ace, and Fork grabbed the next two points. Lakeland called timeout, but Giarrizzo smacked over two more aces to tie the score at 22. Lakeland got the ball and the lead, but a Keosha Riddick tip got the Lady Bulldogs the ball, and a Christie Carter ace ended the game.

Riddick served Fork to a 9-1 lead in the second game, but Maurissa Slocum pushed the gauntlet right back by blasting over eight in a row to give Lakeland the lead. Another back-and-forth battle ended with Giarrizzo serving with a 15-14 lead. A Farris kill and two more points gave the Lady Bulldogs an 18-14 lead, and kills by Bailor and Riddick upped it to 22-16. Lakeland got the ball back three more times, but Bailor capped off a long rally with another kill, and the Lady Bulldogs were up 2-0.

The Lady Cavaliers stayed ahead for all of game three, as Slocum blasted over four aces in six serves. But Bailor smacked home another kill to give Fork a 15-14 advantage in game three, and the Lady Bulldogs wouldn’t trail again.

After Bailor scored an ace and served for another point for a 20-16 lead, Lakeland called timeout. Stephanie Wheeler knocked another kill past the Lady Cavalier defense, and Bailor whacked another ace to go up 22-16. The Lady Cavaliers called timeout and regained possession, but couldn’t score more than two straight points. Slocum knocked down a kill to give them one more breath of life, but Fork got the next point and their first victory was in the books.

&uot;We just came together,&uot; Bailor said. &uot;The first day of my senior year, my school’s first-ever win, against my home school (she spent her first two years at Lakeland), feels great!&uot;

jason.norman@suffolknewsherald.com