Times Observer Photo by Cody Elms The Sheffield volleyball team celebrates its victory over Kane on Thursday night.

“They’re just really good volleyball players,” Sheffield head coach Melissa Lemay stated following a nail-biter inside Ralph J. Santo gymnasium Thursday evening.

After dropping the first set 25-20, Sheffield was able to channel its inner Wolverine, winning two sets in a row, 25-23 and 25-22 and eventually taking the fifth set 15-8 to win 3-2 over the defending District 9 Class AA champion Kane Wolves.

The now 3-0 Wolverines, who had made easy work of their previous two opponents, were met with a tough Kane team, that after taking a 13-10 lead, never allowed Sheffield any closer, going up by as much as six points, before finally winning. The first-set loss allowed the Wolverines to regroup and recognize what they needed to do to come back, according to Lemay.

“I told them after the first set that Kane is not a better team than you, they just played better,” said Lemay. “That was essentially what I thought about the first set, is that they played better. That was our goal, after that first one, just be better. Play better. On our toes defense. Try to find holes in their defense. But that was our mindset after the first one, ‘OK so what? They played better than us, now let’s go out and play better than them.'”

Sheffield came out to an energetic and early lead in the second set, going up 7-2, before Kane started making their comeback. After bouncing leads back and forth until both teams sat at 13-13, it looked as if the Wolves were going to take another one, picking up momentum and a three-point lead 20-17. Sheffield climbed out of the shallow hole on three separate occasions, tying Kane at 20, 21, and again 22, before finally taking the win.

Again, in the third, the Wolverines got off to the hot start, but allowing the Wolves to claw their way back and take the lead. After taking the 7-6 lead, Kane would hold onto it until Sheffield’s Maddison Connolly scored the go-ahead point to lead 20-19, where Wolverines’ Kassidy Orinko took over, scoring two of the final three points to put Sheffield up 2-1.

“They came out and played well, I thought, in the second and third set,” said Lemay. “There were so many long volleys because they played good defense, and we played good defense, and it was just going back and forth. That’s what I saw in the second and third, but in the fourth we had the momentum, after winning two in a row. Not only did we give it to them, we gave it to them on a silver platter.”

Despite giving up momentum early in the fourth, the shift that would carry Sheffield to victory in the fifth set began late in the lost set, as Sheffield was down 11 points, but would go on a 7-1 run to pull within five. It may have been too little too late for the Wolverines, but Lemay was confident they were going into the fifth set in a good spot mentally and physically.

“That’s new compared to last year,” said Lemay on the Wolverines finding their way out of a large deficit. “They were not going to quit. That mental toughness and not quitting got them fired up.”

Orinko finished with 24 digs and led in kills with 22, three aces, and seven blocks.

“She just had a heck of a game,” said Lemay of Orinko. “There were times where some of the younger ones were maybe getting a little bit down on themselves, and she was out there trying to keep them all together. Giving them that support and riling them up when they did something good.”

Kadence Steffan led in both assists (30) and digs (29), while Connolly had 21 digs and six blocks.

EAGLES EXTEND DEVILS TO FIVE SETS

YOUNGSVILLE — Youngsville volleyball coach Hannah Bulard may have summed it up best.

“When’s the last time a Youngsville team took Cambridge Springs to five sets?” she asked after the Eagles’ 23-25, 25-21, 25-12, 23-25, 15-9 loss to the Devils Thursday at a steamy Youngsville High School.

“I couldn’t be more proud of this team,” said Bulard whose team took an opponent to five sets for the second time this week. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a team pass as well as we did tonight. It was just phenomenal. These girls have nothing to hang their heads about.”

The match was a mental battle as much as a physical one with the temperature in the gym bringing sweat beads to the spectators in the stands let alone the athletes on the floor.

In set one, it was the Eagles who struck first with a 25-23 victory to grab a 1-0 lead. Riley Robinault had a pair of kills late in the match and the strong serving of Lynzee Higley was enough to push Youngsville to victory.

The visiting Devils rebounded with another tight victory in game two and appeared to be cruising to a win after a lopsided 25-12 win in the third set of the night.

Youngsville refused to back down.

The Eagles built a 17-8 lead in the fourth set and withstood a late Cambridge Springs rally to pull out the 25-23 win and send the match to the fifth set – a race to 15 points.

The teams stood tied at 4-4 early in the fifth, but ultimately Cambridge Springs would score nine of the next 12 points and take the deciding set, 15-9.

Robinault finished a solid all-around game with 17 digs, 10 kills, three aces and three blocks. Allyson Johnson had a team-best 29 digs with six kills and Higley had 12 digs. Kamden Swearingen completed a strong game with 16 digs and Madilynn Johnson had 19 assists from the setter position.

The Eagles also played strong in the junior varsity game, falling in two sets – 26-24 and 25-20. Swearingen finished with three kills and Marli Rectenwald added five assists for Youngsville.

The Eagles are back in action Saturday with the junior varsity team competing at the Kane Tournament. The varsity team returns to action Tuesday at Maplewood.

WARREN STILL UNBEATEN

TITUSVILLE — Warren volleyball remains unbeaten with a sweep on Thursday at Titusville.

“Varsity came out strong in the first set, but we need to maintain passing consistency throughout the match,” said Warren coach Mike Dolan, whose Dragons won 25-8, 25-22, 25-17. “When we controlled the ball, we were very effective on offense.”

Sophomore Madelyn Nosel led Warren with 11 kills, Maddy Jones had seven kills and four aces, Lindsay Madigan 27 assists and six digs, Alexia Bowers four kills and 11 digs, Kylie Fehlman six kills and Summer Lucks 17 digs.

In Warren’s 25-10, 28-26 junior varsity win, Julia Getner had four kills, Attie Corey three kills, Brynn Norris seven assists, Malysia Sorensen 12 digs, Lauren Fajbik three aces and three kills and Peyton Cabisca five assists.

TCCS FALLS AT HOME

TIDIOIUTE — The Tidioute Community Charter School fell to Cochranton 25-9, 25-12, 25-4.

Callan Patterson had four digs and one kill; Alicia Sabella had three digs and one kill; Zaynah Gardner had one dig and five assists; Brooksten Fors had two digs, one kill and one assist; Katelyn Hart had three digs and three kills; and Sophia Berekzazi had one dig for the Bulldogs.

In the junior varsity match, Cochranton came away with a 25-9 and 25-6.

Hailey Paden had two digs; Anna Sabella had four digs and one assist; Tegan Whiteman had two digs and one kill; and Lexi Hart had one dig for the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs host the Forest Fires on Monday. The junior varsity game is scheduled for 6 p.m. with varsity to follow.