Lakeland Uses Balance To Beat George Jenkins

LAKELAND | Lakeland knows that it can't depend soley on Krista Andersen if it wants to achieve its lofty goals this season.

The Dreadnaughts showed they won't have to depend just on their 6-foot-1 star. They had plenty of balance in their 25-14, 25-20, 25-12 victory over George Jenkins Thursday night in the season opener for both teams.

Andersen certainly had her typical game, 21 kills, four solo blocks, five digs and three aces, despite going through a couple of spurts where she was hitting long, wide or being blocked.

Hope Andreadis, however, showed that if teams are simply going to focus their defense around Andersen, she'll make them pay. A 5-9 sophomore, Andreadis took advantage of strong sets by Lauren Andersen (32 assists, seven digs) and blasted 13 kills, finding open hitting lanes and holes in the George Jenkins defense.

''Hope played very well,'' Lakeland coach Crystal Ramsey said. "Our passing was very good. Lauren was able to move the ball around.''

Behind the Andersen-Andreadis combination, Hannah Pennekamp and Brianne Holland each had five kills.

George Jenkins is trying to find its way without last year's player of the year Katie Leitner. Casey Askey and Nicole Lorenz had key kills at times, but the Eagles are breaking in two new setters. Unlike their strong performance in a victory over Bartow in the classic last week, the setters struggled against Lakeland and the Eagles couldn't get into their offense consistently.

"We made a lot of bad decisions,'' Jenkins coach Lisa Bickerton said.

The Eagles played scrappy defense, which allowed them to play even most of the second game. Andreadis' play in the middle of the game, four kills, an ace and a solo block - allowed the Dreadnaughts to stay even with Jenkins.

Then after Andersen's attack went out, which made it a 20-17 Lakeland lead, she came back with three consecutive kills that allowed Lakeland to pull away.