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No More Sneaking Up

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By EDDIE DANIELS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 18, 2007

HUDSON - The time Zephyrhills' volleyball team sneaks up on an opponent is over.

Last season the squad mustered a 15-4 start, competing for the Sunshine Athletic Conference crown before ending the season 22-7.

And here they go again.

Not only did the Bulldogs (6-0) take care of Hudson and Nature Coast, but it was done two days apart, while each opponent was undefeated.

'It's so exciting,' Kristen Arnold said. 'I'm a senior and I don't think we've won even a game in a match against Hudson.'

Seconds later, younger sister and sophomore Lindsay Arnold chimed in.

'And I think it will give us the respect that we deserve,' she said.

The sisters have played integral roles in helping the Bulldogs to that respect they're likely receiving now. It's a running joke with teammates the two are twins despite the two-year gap.

'We joke about how there are so many times where they'd either finish each other's sentences or they'll both have the same idea in the middle of a rally,' Zephyrhills coach Tiffany Bibby said. 'And we joke about it's that twin thing they have going on, although they're two years apart.

'It's neat. I have three older sisters and when I played ball, we were always competitive with each other, and they are so the opposite of that. Just so good about helping each other out.'

That's a plus seeing how the sisters are setters in the Zephyrhills offense, which calls for two setters instead of the traditional single setter.

Kristen Arnold has had that role for the past four seasons, while Lindsay Arnold committed herself to the position this summer after having a minimal role with the varsity squad as a freshman.

'She got limited playing time and she basically said I'm going to work my butt off and I'm going to play more this year,' Bibby said of the younger Arnold. 'Tell me what position you want me to work for and I'll play that position and I'm going to do a great job, Coach.

'Sure enough, she came back and now she sets for us and she didn't set for us last year.'

It was imperative for each player to work hard last Tuesday against Hudson. In the game tape Bibby watched of last season's two matches, no one on the Bulldogs' defense could stop the powerful shots of Hudson's Paige Lake and Lara Metz.

The duo, along with Jessica McCall, helped slow the big shots from the Cobras' front row.

'For us to come around and block her a few times, I think that really got my kids fired up and going,' Bibby said. 'So Lindsay Arnold and Kristen Arnold did a great job.'

Give thanks to a summer program that included a USF camp, a ropes course, overnight get-together and plenty of hard work.

'We definitely stepped it up since last year. We worked all summer,' Lindsay Arnold said. 'Towards the end we had two-a-days and then we did swimming aerobics just to get us in shape, so we've been working really, really hard.

'It's really good. It's definitely paying off.'

The change is also emotional.

'We calm each other down,' Kristen Arnold said. 'And if one person's down we try to cheer them up. That was a lot of the problem last year. If one person's down then it brought the entire team down. I think we've really improved on that this year. I think it's definitely improved the attitude.'

The record, too.

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