Salem takes down Springfield in district final

Photo

Echo Mayer-Kutz

By TOM WILLIAMS

williams@vindy.com

SALEM

Salem volleyball coach Sarah Hamilton has seen Echo Mayer-Kutz make some unusual plays.

The Quakers junior added to her canon Saturday during the third game of the Division III district title match against Springfield at Salem High School. Mayer-Kutz went horizontal and used her left arm to backhand a waist-high ball that hit the top of the net then trickled over for a Quakers point.

“My girls have made some very special plays this year,” said Hamilton, the Quakers’ fourth-year coach who played for Don Conser’s strong volleyball squads when she was a Salem student. “We’re used to making special plays and not giving up on the ball.

“Echo has been known to do some pretty remarkable things.”

The Quakers ended up losing that game, 25-23, but they won the other three to earn their second straight district title. The other scores were 25-17, 25-17 and 25-16.

“That was definitely a highlight play this year,” Mayer-Kutz said. “In practice, we always work on never giving up on the ball.

“That’s just what we had to do.”

The top-seeded Quakers started a little slowly against the third-seeded Tigers, but came on strong with an 11-0 run to take the first game.

“We said we can’t shoot ourselves in the foot and make mental mistakes, and we did,” said Angela Jones, the Tigers’ first-year head coach who replaced Bill Knight, Springfield’s volleyball coach for more than three decades. Jones played for Knight.

“And that’s always tough — this is such a mental game,” Jones said. “You just have to try to capitalize on the other team’s errors and unfortunately we gave them too many and that momentum.”

For the Tigers (19-6), senior Kaelen Yemma made 31 assists and scored seven points. Junior Lyndsey Smith made 11 kills and four blocks while junior Jennie Stitzel contributed nine kills and 16 points with four aces. Senior Makenzy Capouellez made 28 digs.

Jones, whose assistant Kari Brungard also played for Knight, said Knight left the program in great shape when he stepped down.

“Bill Knight did a wonderful job getting these girls ready,” Jones said. “He left me a nice group of very talented girls.

“Our goal was to bring it out to [Barberton] one time, but we fell a little short.”

Yemma said the Tigers achieved one of their goals by lasting until the district final.

“We were very confident we were going to and I’m proud of everyone for working so hard the whole season,” Yemma said.

The Quakers’ next match will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Barberton High School against Independence, winner of the Elyria district.

“They are a really good team,” Yemma said of the Quakers. “We knew it was going to be a tough [match].”

DIVISION IV

At Columbiana High School, top-seeded Wellsville defeated Western Reserve to win the district title. The scores were 25-21, 25-13, 23-25 and 25-16.

For the Tigers, Jenna McNichol made 25 digs while Kiki Perry made 20 kills and four blocks.

For the Blue Devils, Morgan Donithan made 30 digs and scored four points with two aces. Laura Sigworth made 13 digs and five kills and scored eight points with an ace. Danielle Vuletich contributed eight kills, six blocks and seven points. Olivia Pater made eight digs and 12 assists, and scored eight points.