By Ben Shanahan

Special to the Sentinel-Ttribune

MILLBURY — Lake volleyball maintained their hold on first place in the Northern Buckeye Conference by defeating visiting Otsego in four sets, 25-14, 22-25, 25-8, 25-21, on Thursday.

The Flyers were led by senior outside hitter and setter Taryn Dewese, who always seemed to be in the right place at the right time, as she earned 26 kills, seven assists, five aces, three block assists, and eight digs.

“Our team played a great game after the loss (last week) to Eastwood. We just wanted to come back from that and prove we are the top.” Dewese said.

For the Flyers, freshman Mylah Vorst had three block assists, senior Sydney Stanley had 23 digs and senior Vayda Delventhal had 14 digs, and Delventhal led the Flyers with 17 assists.

For Lake coach Amy Vorst, this keeps her team one game up on Eastwood.

“This one feels great. They played well,” Vorst said. “Otsego did a good job in the second set. They took care of business.

“We were back on our heels, not playing aggressively, but when we came out in the third, we readjusted our game plan and came out hard, which was a big switch for the mentality.”

The Flyers are 14-5 overall and 11-1 in the NBC, Eastwood was 15-3 and 9-2 heading into a match Thursday at Maumee, and Otsego falls to 14-7 and 8-4. With two league games remaining, Lake controls its own destiny and can claim a share of the league title next Tuesday against visiting Rossford, or an outright title if Eastwood loses.

For the Knights, this puts them three games back in the NBC standings. Coach Gabby Smith saw some positives but added there are things that still need to be improved.

“We really need to work on serve-receive. We knew that coming in, and they had really aggressive servers,” Smith said.

“They came out on top. Unfortunately, today, other than that, I think we put the ball down really well, but we need that pass to get that ball.”

Otsego senior Emily Genson had 11 kills and 13 digs, freshman Molly Kramer had 18 digs, and senior Faith Keifer had 14 digs and 25 assists.

Lake came out firing hot in the first set, leading 10-2 through the first 12 points.

After the Knights cut the Flyer’s lead in half, Dewese fired off three aces in a row, putting the game almost out of reach and making the score 14-5. Lake would cruise to a set-one victory, 25-14.

Otsego opened up set with a five-point rally as freshman Lucy Boos’ serves put her squad in great position down one set.

From there, Lake brought the deficit down to only a point as Dewese had three kills and freshman Calli Conley also recorded a kill.

Then, set two became an all-out war as the Knights held the lead all the way until the 15-15 point of the match, forcing coach Smith to take a timeout.

The timeout did not slow down the action, however, as both teams battled point for point until the Knights went on a 5-2 run, making the game 22-19 and forcing Vorst to burn her timeout. Her timeout was ineffective, as the Knights took set two 25–22.

The back and forth would spill into set three as both teams split the first five points 3-2 in favor of Lake.

Lake then went on an 8-2 run, giving the Flyers a 10-4 lead. From there, it was all Flyers, as they dominated set three and got the win, 25-8.

In set four, the Knights did not roll over despite getting blown out in the previous set. Both teams were at five points apiece after the first ten points, but the Flyers rattled off a three-point rally, making the score 8-5.

From there, both teams battled to a 19-19 draw, which would lead to Lake putting the final nail in the coffin with a three-point rally that was too large for Otsego to overcome. Lake took the final set, 25-21.