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Cards spike Spartans
Gallery
By BOB ETTINGER
sports@vindy.com
CANFIELD
Alyssa Householder knows the Canfield volleyball team is at its best when its having fun. Householder and the Cardinals established they were going to enjoy themselves right from the first serve in a 25-9, 25-22, 25-14 victory over visiting Boardman in All-American Conference Red Tier play on Tuesday night.
Loud kills from Grace Mangapora and Alexis Mettille in the first three points of the first game set the tone for what was to come.
“That was so much fun,” Householder said. “We had everyone together. Our passes were on. Our sets were on. It was so much fun. It seemed every other ball was a ball straight-down kill. That’s why I love setting. I’m a setter/hitter. When people ask which one I like more, I can finally say setting. Seeing the girls put it down, I get so proud of the hitters.”
It was more of the same for the remainder of that game as the Cardinals (12-1, 5-0) dictated what was going to happen all the way through the match.
“[Those first kills] were huge,” Canfield coach Maria Householder said. “We’re always the team to beat, and we know they want to take us down. We came in knowing they wanted us, and we weren’t going to play around. We wanted to come out and out two, three, four points on the board. There was no screwing around, no warmup, in this one.”
Consecutive kills from Mangapora and Abbi Havrilla put Canfield ahead, 11-2. A kill from Gabby Demidovich and an ace serve from Mettille pushed it to 16-4 and a kill from Havrilla and block from Mangapora closed out the game.
The Spartans (11-3, 5-1) never led in the first game and, despite tying the score a couple of times, never led in the second game, either.
“Honestly, we put in a new lineup yesterday and we only had one practice with it,” Boardman coach Danielle Siembida said. “Actually, I’m pretty happy with the way we progressed through the match. Canfield plays fast, big and aggressive. We were playing catchup in the first set. In the second, we were more relaxed and started to play our game.”
A block and an ace from Mettille broke a 6-6 tie for Canfield, which never let the score get back to even from there.
“We really had to find balance,” Maria Householder said. “We want to keep the fun factor but limit those bad emotions [that can get us to high or low]. That’s what happened in the second game. We got comfortable and lost the fun factor.”
Boardman scored the first point of the third game on a block from Kathryn O’Horo for its first lead. The Spartans’ advantage reached 4-0 and they still led as late as 12-11 following a kill from Maria Torres.
“Any time you want to have a lead, you have to serve, pass and spike aggressively. When we were able to do those two things, we were able to score points. As soon as one of those things broke down, it was awfully hard to score points.”
An ace by Havrilla followed a Boardman passing error to Canfield in front, 13-11, for the first time in that game. A kill from Mangapora and two more aces from Havrilla keyed a sustained run to solidify the Cardinals’ advantage, 18-12.
“As the games went on, we got more confident,” Mettille said. “We were going hard right from the start. Once we realized we were down, it was, ‘Let’s get together. We are a team and we know how to win.’ That’s what we did.”
Mangapora had 11 kills, Mettille had nine kills and seven blocks and Alyssa Householder added 16 assists and 10 points. Demidovich had six blocks, Jenna DeLisio chipped in with eight digs. Havrilla scored 10 points and five aces and Riley Wilkins added nine points.
Katie Stamp paced Boardman with seven kills, a pair of aces, a block and six digs. Raegan Burkey had 16 assists, six digs, an ace and a block, O’Horo added five kills and a block and Torres chipped in with two kills, a block and nine digs.