PEMBERVILLE — Eastwood volleyball swept visiting Maumee, 25-19, 25-9, 25-18, on Tuesday to improve to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Northern Buckeye Conference.
Freshman Mackenna Miller had 11 kills, senior Nadia Miller had eight kills, two blocks, and eight digs, senior Joelle Jared had seven digs and three aces, and junior Lilly Mullholand had five kills and three blocks to lead the Eagles.
After Tuesday’s play, the Eagles trailed first place Lake (6-3, 5-0) by one game in the NBC standings, followed by Otsego (6-3, 3-2), Maumee (4-4, 3-2), Oak Harbor (5-5, 3-2), Rossford (3-5, 2-3), Fostoria (2-7, 0-5) and Genoa (2-8, 0-5).
The Eagles’ only league loss came to the Flyers, but it went five sets and down to the last point as Lake took a 25-17, 25-18, 20-25, 19-25, 15-13 win on the Eagles’ court September 5.
Senior Taryn DeWese had 24 kills, 18 digs, 17 assists, two block assists and three aces and senior Maura Deutschman had 11 kills to lead the Flyers.
Senior Vayda Delventhal had 25 assists, 18 digs and three aces, junior Keira Magers and freshman Mylah Vorst had two block assists apiece, and senior Sydney Stanley had 13 digs for Lake.
Leading Eastwood were junior Addie Hartman with 14 kills and two block assists, Mackenna Miller had 19 kills and 15 digs and Nadia Miller had 12 kills and seven block assists.
Jared had 13 digs and four aces, Mullholland had three block assists, junior Mylie Frantz had two block assists, and senior Paige Hoodlebrink had 45 assists and 11 digs for Eastwood.
The Eagles and Flyers will meet again at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 28 in the Lake Fieldhouse.
Eastwood second-year coach Sarah Frank knew that the Flyers would be a contender from the start, btu she adds that “there are many competitive teams in the league this year.”
Frank says her team excels at “offense, work-ethic, and camaraderie amongst the players.”
In Frank’s first season, the Eagles went 19-6, were NBC runners-up, sectional champion, and district runners-up.
Frank had been an assistant two years before coming to Eastwood. She also was an assistant for two years at Elmwood and coached eighth grade volleyball at Northwood prior to that.
Frank has eight returning letter winners, including Nadia Miller, who was a first team All-NBC selection last year. Jared was second team All-NBC and Hoodlebrink, junior Kyrie Henline and Hartman received honorable mention accolades.
Frank expected Nadia Miller, Hartman, Mullholand and Mackenna Miller to be her top hitters.
As an outside hitter in her first year of varsity volleyball, the 5-foot-11 Mackenna Miller is already making an impact. She leads the team with 110 kills and five block assists,
Nadia Miller (5-10) has 77 kills, six solo blocks and 14 block assists, Mullholand (6-3) has 55 kills, three solo blocks and 15 block assists and Hartman (5-10) has 53 kills, one solo block and eight block assists.
Hoodelbrink is her top returning setter, already with 243 assists and 60 digs, and Jared and Henline her top defenders. Henline has 68 digs and Jared has 53.
The top returning servers from last year are Jared, senior Jersey Schumaker and Henline. Jared and Schumaker lead the team with 13 aces apiece, Hartman and Hoodlebrink have nine apiece and Henline has eight.
