WHITEHOUSE — Anthony Wayne earned an outright Northern Lakes League Buckeye Division volleyball championship by sweeping Perrysburg, 26-24, 25-20, 25-15, Tuesday.
The Generals improved to 19-2 overall and 7-0 in the NLL, and by defeating Perrysburg they avoided sharing the title with the Yellow Jackets, which fell to 14-7 and 5-2 with both league losses coming to AW.
“Obviously it’s not the outcome we wanted,” Perrysburg coach Laura Davidson said. “I think we played really hard throughout most of the match.
“I think we just kind of let up on some technical things at the end and gave it up. Those are obviously things we have been working on all season so we need to switch gears going into postseason.”
For Perrysburg, senior middle blocker Wrigley Takats had eight kills, two blocks and one ace and junior outside hitter Sophie Burkey had 10 kills, three blocks and an ace.
But it was the play of two AW sophomores, middle hitter Leah Pike and outside hitter Mal Pike, that was the difference. Both were cleaning up on kills from even the back row, and never seemed to miss.
“When she (Mal) has her best arm swing she can crush it for sure,” AW coach Chrissy Graven said.
“She has the most (kill) attempts on our team for sure. She’s a six-rotation, go-to player for us. Both Leah and Mal Pike are phenomenal kids and players and just great for our program.”
On a kill by Takats, Perrysburg had a 24-23 first set lead and Takats was serving for set point, but AW scored three straight points on a kill by senior right side hitter Abby Reed, an ace by junior libero Ryan Dzierwa, and a set win off block assists by Reed and Leah Pike.
In the second set, Burkey and sophomore middle blocker Mia Brandeberry combined for a block to put the Jackets up, 20-19, but AW closed out with six straight points behind the serving of sophomore defensive specialist Jessie Kennelly to win the set.
In the third, a kill by Mal Pike put AW up 16-7 and the Generals never looked back, although an ace by Perrysburg sophomore outside hitter Katie Pahl pulled the Jackets to within four, 17-13.
However, behind the serving of Mal Pike and Dzierwa, AW went on a scoring tear, including two kills by Mal Pike, to close out the match.
It secured AW’s first outright league volleyball title in three years.
“It always feels great against Perrysburg,” Graven said. “I’m proud of our girls, undefeated in the league, but we still have to keep our sights focused. Yes, we are a young team but they compete and they get along great.”
After Perrysburg concludes its regular season this week, the Yellow Jackets will open Division I tournament play by taking on Toledo Notre Dame at Fremont Ross at 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday, October 18.
Davidson said the three seniors, Takats, defensive specialist Maddie Trautman, and setter Lydia Steyer, stood up after the AW game and gave a few words about what they would like to see happen in the stretch run of the season.
“We’ve been working together for months,” Davidson said. “We are going to coach our best but they are going to have to turn this into the season they want and decide what they want to do for each other at this point.
“I think some of our seniors just stepped up and said a few words and want to make sure they are playing for each other, so they need to step it up.”
One year after Perrysburg reached the Division I state final four, it has been a season of adversity for the Yellow Jackets, but Davidson says her players have done their best to persevere.
“I think the girls have worked hard. We’ve had a great schedule,” Davidson said. “We’ve had some injuries and we’ve had to change lineups and they played through all of that.
“We are kind of back to our starting lineup and now we have to get used to that. We’re still young — we have three seniors, so we still have some building to do, but I feel like they are doing well coming off a strong season from last year.”
