JEFFERSON —
In what has been a learning season for a young but talented Jefferson Falcon volleyball team, some of the lessons they have been taught have paid dividends, some have not.
The Falcons got another lesson Tuesday night in a Division II sectional semifinal as they came up on the short end of a 25-14, 27-25, 25-19 match at the hands of the Streetsboro Rockets.
After an Alyssa Irons dink gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead to start the match, Streetsboro’s Lexi Brewster slammed home a hard spike to give her team its first serve of the night, and shortly thereafter the Rockets opened a 4-2 lead. After a net serve tied the match at 5-5, the Falcons opened an 8-5 edge, but it was short lived.
“We’ve had an up and down season,” Streetsboro coach Bill Smerglia said. “When the girls show up to play, they can be very good. They have the talent, but focus isn’t always sharp. Tonight it was, and we did everything fairly well except for a couple stretches. We picked it up when we had to in the second game, and in the third we had a rough stretch in the middle when we lost our focus a bit.
“Jefferson played well in spots, too, and made us do some different things, but we regained our direction.”
Keying the win for the Rockets was the front line play of Lexi Brewster and Paige Saunders, who put on a solid display of both power volleyball and soft touches to open spots, and that, along with a lot of unforced errors that come with a young team, hurt Jefferson.
“Unfortunately, every team ends the season with a loss except for one,” Falcon coach Don Palm said. “I don’t think we played to our potential tonight, but I’m really proud of the effort the girls gave and proud of the many improvements they worked hard on over the course of the season. Our four seniors can leave knowing they left the team on solid ground for the future.
“Streetsboro’s hitters did a nice job of both attacking us at the nets and tipping the ball to open spots when we played for the big hits. They are a well-coached team that knows when to attack and when to tip the ball to open spots. They kept us off balance most of the night, and that’s what a good offense will do.”
With Brewster (15 kills, 15 digs, 4 blocks) and Saunders (8 kills, 2 blocks, 7 dinks) either setting each other up or putting the ball down, when the Falcons (6-17) played for the block, they got the dink, and when they played back for that, they got the laser shots.
Either way, it kept Jefferson from putting together any long scoring runs. When the Falcons did have any momentum, or a lead, they couldn’t build on it or extend it.
They adjusted better in the second set, holding a lead much of the way, but when Mikaela Dombrowski served up 3 straight points to tie it at 21-21, the Falcons could not quite get over the hump to hang on, and a slam and a dink from Saunders ended the set.
The Falcons never did have a lead in the last set, ending their season.
“It has been an interesting season,” Palm said. “The girls have worked hard and team chemistry was great. Now the younger girls need to build on this and work harder to keep improving.”
The win for Streetsboro (13-10) sends them into a 7:15 matchup on Thursday with Portage Trail Conference foe Crestwood.
“We’ve got to get ready for Crestwood a third time, a tough task to look at,” said Smerglia. “We lost to them twice already this year, but if Lexi, who has been our key player, and is still recovering from a foot injury that limited her at times, comes on and Paige has a strong match, we have a chance.”
Hayley Allen had a strong match for the Falcons with 13 points, 16 of 18 spiking and 4 kills, and 15 of 16 passing. Sam Hamski served up 12 points and was perfect passing with 25 of 25, Taylor Johnston served up 11 points and was all over the floor setting up things for the front line with 73 of 79 sets, but the whole match came down to the constant adjustments from Brewster and Saunders being too much for the Falcons to handle.
Kelly is a freelance writer from Jefferson.
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