Despite a valiant effort by the visiting Knights in the last set, the Wolverines were able to keep the sweep alive, winning 25-15, 25-8 and 25-21.

To start the third set, the Wolverines gave up three points, only to respond with three of their own to tie it. The two teams would trade points with Sheffield slowly pulling away with small scoring runs until Eisenhower powered back to pull within one at 20-19.

Sheffield would score three straight before Eisenhower could put another point on the board. The Wolverines added another and held a 24-20 lead. The Knights were able to add another hard-fought point before Sheffield took the set and the match.

“I substituted everybody on my bench in the third game because I need to get them playing time,” said Sheffield head coach Melissa Lemay. “I need to get them competitive playing time. In the third one, I think our intensity was a little bit down, but again I had four or five different people in. But I didn’t want to not give them that opportunity.”

Times Observer Photo by Cody Elms Sheffield’s Kassidy Orinko shows off her athleticism.

In the second set, Sheffield had scoring streaks of five and eight unanswered points in what was easily the Wolverines’ most dominating set of the night.

In the first set, Kadence Steffan and Peyton Wotorson fired rockets as servers.

Lemay felt the serving and play that she has seen as tough and consistent in practice carried over well Tuesday night, stating that she felt everyone handled themselves pretty well in a game situation.

Lemay also pointed out an error on her part, as she had the lineup incorrect in the first set, but applauded the girls’ reaction and play despite being in different positions.

“Lexi (Goldthwaite) and Kassidy (Orinko) were switched and that’s because I put them on the lineup card wrong,” said Lemay. “So at one point Kassidy had to be the outside hitter and Lexi had to be the middle hitter. They were able to make it work. We were still able to win even though it wasn’t right.”

Orinko finished with seven kills and Goldthwaite had five. Steffan had a moderate 10 assists, while Wotorson had five aces to go along with four aces. Wotorson went 16 of 17 from the serving line.

Despite the loss, Eisenhower head coach Patti Mead felt the girls played well to come back in the third set and feels they have a gauge on where they are moving forward with the season.

“This is their first game, most of them are in new positions,” said Mead. “I actually removed my center and put her in libero, put someone else in for setting, we have a new girl on the team from another school district, we have a freshman and sophomores, but they all individually have a strong skill set. This point in time, it’s going to come back on me. Pull these girls together and figure out specifically what we need to be working on, and communication.”

Sheffield’s junior varsity won in three, giving up the first set 23-25, but bouncing back to take the last two 25-17 and 15-11. Emma Roell had seven kills and six digs. Peyton Wotorson had 11 assists.

For Eisenhower, freshman Layla Edwards had 10 points, including four aces, six blocks and five kills; senior Kailee Morrison had nine points; and freshman Caroline Smyth had two blocks and three kills.