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Strong serves propel Canfield
By TIM CLEVELAND
HOWLAND
One of the strengths of top volleyball teams is the serve, which can put the opposition off-balance and create opportunities for big scoring runs.
Thursday night, Canfield gave a prime example of just that, as Marcella Adams and Morgan Leonard served the Cardinals past Howland, 25-11, 25-8, 25-20.
“They’re all really good servers,” Canfield coach Maria Householder said. “Our stats on serving [are] great, but tonight they had power behind it. They didn’t hesitate. They went hard. I said, ‘just go hard’ because we know isn’t a higher-strength team, so I said, ‘go hard.’
“I don’t think we have anything to lose. They really put it away.”
Adams paced Canfield (18-2, 4-2 All-American Conference American Division) with 19 points and seven aces. She had a run of 12 consecutive points in Game 1 to turn a slim, 13-11 advantage into a rout, then she added seven more in the second game as the Cardinals extended their lead from 7-5 to 14-5.
“Sometimes it is, but I was really into it this game,” Adams said when asked if serving is her main strength. “I felt that I had a lot of power. I want to try and hit more spots as I serve and just really have more strength and get it to the right spot.”
When Adams’ serving run ended, Leonard took over. In the second game, she served eight points in a row and had nine more in Game 3.
Overall, Adams had 17 points and four aces.
Householder said the Cardinals look to establish dominance on their serve.
“That starts it all out,” she said. “If you give them a rainbow, it’s like giving them a free ball. If we can come at them hard, it’s like they have to start off of a spike, practically, if you can get hard serves at them. We get a free ball if we’re serving hard at them.”
Howland (6-16, 2-4) gave Canfield a tough fight in the early stages of the first two games. The Tigers trailed just 12-11 in Game 1 and 6-5 in Game 2 before going down.
In the final game, Howland fell behind 23-14, but fought back to within 24-20 before Darby Hepola slammed down one of her team-high six kills to end it for the Cardinals.
“Volleyball’s a lot of pressure to play well throughout the whole match,” Howland coach Amanda Lingenfelter said. “Youth got us a little bit. It’s been a growing year.”
Sophomore Emily Robinson led Howland with eight points and two aces on her serve, and she added five digs.
“She’s been improving from week to week,” Lingenfelter said. “We’ve been really working on her serve. We’re really excited that she got to show it a little bit tonight.”
Both teams are in the same Stow-Munroe Falls bracket in the Division I sectional. Howland plays Twinsburg on Monday at 5:30 p.m. while Canfield goes against Walsh Jesuit on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
“We’ve got to move the ball around,” Householder said. “We’re playing a tough team; we’re playing Walsh Jesuit. They were scouting us tonight. I think they’ve got some height on us, so we’ve got to spread their defense. We have to change it up.”