Warren's girls volleyball team kept its playoff hopes alive with a 3-1 win over cross-county-rival Eisenhower Tuesday at Eisenhower High School.
"We'd have to win out (to get in the playoffs)," Warren coach Mike Dolan said. "And even then the three region losses will hurt us."
Game one was a back-and-forth affair with Warren taking the early 6-4 lead. Eisenhower came back to take a 9-7 advantage. The Dragons answered with a 6-1 run to regain the lead at 13-12. The Knights tied at 13-13 before Warren went on a 5-3 run to go up 18-16. Eisenhower answered with a 4-0 run of its own to take a 20-18 lead and forcing Warren to call a timeout. The Dragons rallied after the timeout to quickly go up 23-21, and took game one 25-22.
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Times Observer photo by Allen Seybert
Bump and go
Warren County Christian School’s Whitney Poindexter returns the serve of a Meadville Calvary Baptist opponent during a volleyball match between the schools Tuesday at WCCS.
The Knights jumped out to a 3-1 lead to start game two. Rachel Hasselman stepped to the line for the Dragons and served eight straight points to give Warren a lead it would never relinquish. With Warren facing game point and leading 24-8, the Knights tried to make a comeback. Jessica Byrd served five straight points to close the gap, but the Dragons held on for a 25-13 win.
Eisenhower used the momentum gained from the end of game two to race out to an 11-5 lead in game three. Warren tried to rally, but service errors on three straight serves kept the Dragons from being able to gain any momentum.
"Our serving broke down in game three," Dolan said. "As a team we need to work on having someone step up to make a play."
"Momentum shifts are so important in this game," said Eisenhower coach Tom Firth. "You can't get too low when it's against you, or too high when it's in your favor."
Warren was able to cut the deficit to 22-16, but Eisenhower only allowed one more point on its way to a 25-17 win to avoid the sweep.
"We hung with them tonight," Firth said.
The Dragons quickly grabbed a 7-2 lead to start game four. Eisenhower was able to cut the lead to 8-5 before the teams would begin trading points with Warren taking a 10-6 lead. The Knights rallied, down 14-7, to cut the lead to three at 16-13, but the Dragons went on a 5-1 run to gain a 21-14 advantage. Warren closed out the match with a 25-16 win.
Rachel Lasecki led the Dragons with 17 kills. Rachel Hasselman had eight aces to go along with 21 digs. McKenzie Merenick contributed 28 digs and Teah Bines had 19 assists.
"I'm happy with the win," Dolan said. "But we've got to keep improving."
Courtney Flynn had four kills for the Knights. Marion Sherer added four aces and Lexi Dalrymple had four blocks.
Firth said that he's happy that his team is spreading points around and not counting on one player to make everything happen.
Eisenhower won the JV contest, 23-25, 25-22 and 15-11. Ashley Barnett had a strong run of service points and Holly Chapman had two kills for Eisenhower. Bailey Dilks had 14 assists and Meghan Loutzenhiser added eight kills for the Dragons.
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WCCS 3, Meadville Calvary Baptist 0
Warren County Christian School won for the 11th time in 12 tries this season Tuesday with a 3-0 sweep of visiting Meadville Calvary Baptist.
The Lady Lions were never seriously challenged in any of the games, winning 25-8, 25-11, 25-10.
Alyssa Kerr had 23 service points with 10 aces in three kills to pace the winning effort. Teammate Christina Girard finished with 10 service points, two aces, four kills and six assists, Dymphee Zortman added nine service points and Kaitlin Weidner had eight service points and three kills.
WCCS started strong in the junior varsity match, winning game one 25-8. However, Meadville rallied to win the final two games, 25-19, 15-7, to complete the 2-1 win. Allison Weidner led the Lady Lions with 15 service points.
WCCS visits Erie Bethel on Thursday.
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Franklin 3, Youngsville 1
FRANKLIN - Service errors always come back to haunt you.
Youngsville had big leads in the second and fourth sets of Tuesday's contest with Franklin, but three key service points in each set cost them a chance at victory in a 3-1 loss.
The Eagles won the opening set of the night 25-16 before dropping the final three sets in succession, 19-25, 14-25, 23-25.
"Franklin is a good team and second in the region," said Youngsville coach Terry Schrader. "But we had our chances. In games two and four, we had big leads but missed key serves in each game and they always come back to haunt you. You can get away with it against a weaker team, but against good teams it's going to cost you every time."
The Eagles looked like they were poised for a big win after taking the opening set. However, Franklin grabbed momentum back in set two, drubbed the Eagles in set three and pulled out a thrilling fourth game to close out the match.
Arielle Clark led the Eagles Tuesday with 12 kills and nine service points. Savanna Schoedel added 37 digs and Amber Fox chipped in 25 assists.
In the junior varsity game, Franklin bested Youngsville 17-25, 23-25. Tobi Robinault and Karissa Cratty each had five service points for the Eagles.
Youngsville returns to action Thursday, hosting Rocky Grove.