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South Range bears down in sweep
— high school volleyball —
By Brian Dzenis
SALEM
The South Range High School volleyball team may have needed a slight wake-up call.
Once the Raiders got back on track, they were able to move past Columbiana in three games on Tuesday at Salem High School.
In the other match, United eliminated Ursuline in three games in the Division III tournament.
South Range never trailed in its 25-12 win in the first game and got off to a 13-4 lead in the second game.
But with a comfortable cushion, the Raiders seemed to relax a bit when the Clippers went on a tear for seven unanswered points, forcing Raiders coach Rachel Storm-Baker into calling a timeout.
“I just think we got too settled, because we’ve played them before and won in four and we thought we could make more mistakes, but we couldn’t,” South Range’s Lynnie Ritter said. “They’re really good on defense and their hitting is solid and we were just confused about our spots, because they weren’t hitting there in the first game.
“We didn’t get down on ourselves, we usually get down and when we mess up, we get mad at each other, and we didn’t do that at all,” Ritter said. “We stayed as a team and that was awesome.”
The Raiders never fully squandered the lead to take the second game, 25-17 and then won the final game, 25-13.
That 7-0 stretch in the second game was a bright spot for Columbiana coach Linda Knox.
Injuries and illness have translated into a 9-14 season for the Clippers, with the most recent setback was finding out that one of the team’s setters was going to be out sick for the district opener.
Knox had to form a new gameplan as the team rode the bus to Salem.
“I told the girls I was so proud, nobody likes to lose but we never gave up, we had four girls playing out of position tonight,” Knox said. “Anybody watching in the stands would not have known that and they didn’t show that, they persevered and pushed through the entire time, I couldn’t be more proud of how they played tonight.”
For South Range, Emily Moretti led the team with 13 digs, 12 kills, two aces and 14 points. Ritter had 12 kills to go with two aces, seven points and six blocks. Eliza Garlough had 12 digs and six points and Ashley McKee put up two kills with 42 assists. For Columbiana, Dee Dixon had four blocks, four kills and three digs, Rae Dixon had three digs and nine points, Brynn Pennell had 13 digs and 11 assists and Alexis Cross finished with 12 digs, three kills and two points.
South Range next will face Liberty on Thursday at 7 p.m.
“I think it was just about our side of the court just playing like my girls playing like they know how and our team stepping up and playing South Range volleyball,” Storm-Baker said.
United-Ursuline
The Golden Eagles easily dispatched the Irish in three games (25-14, 25-7, 25-12).
“You never want to underestimate anybody, but I didn’t think they had the experience to beat us,” United coach Don Conser said.
Ursuline’s inability to consistently return serves led to the defeat, as evidenced by the Golden Eagles’ Logan Daggy racking up a team-high 14 service points. What few serves the Irish could return were often easy for the Golden Eagles to convert into scoring opportunities.
“We would just serve to the spots that my Dad and my coach would tell us to go to and I just hit my spots overtime,” Daggy said.
Daggy also added 11 assists and nine kills. Sophomore Camryn Jarrett had a Golden Eagle-high 10 kills, five service points and two assists. An open-enrollment student at United, the sophomore has been a revelation for the Golden Eagles since she’s been cleared to play in matches. Because of her open enrollment status, Jarrett was permitted to practice with the team, but could not participate in any games or scrimmages.
“Once she sat out the first 11, we’ve only lost one since and that was to some team called South Range,” Conser said of Jarrett. “She makes a big difference.”
United will return to Salem to face Waterloo, a team the Golden Eagles faced in the preseason, in the next round of district play Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
“We were pretty relaxed out there because we knew this would be one of the easier games that we have, but we know it’s going to be harder from here on out, so we have to start working harder and harder if we want to get to where we want to be,” Daggy said.