St. Marys’ Brynn Clark (left) and Syerra Greber defend a shot by Wapakoneta’s Addi Fisher during Thursday night’s match at St. Marys.
Don Speck | The Lima News
ST. MARYS — St. Marys was looking to put the match away early.
But Wapakoneta had different ideas.
After St. Marys won the first two sets in Thursday’s Western Buckeye League volleyball match against visiting Wapakoneta (25-17, 25-13), the Redskins won a hard-fought third set (28-26) and forced a fourth set in the best of five.
St. Marys recovered after dropping the third set and put Wapakoneta away in the fourth set, 25-15, to take the four-set match.
With the win, St. Marys improves to 6-4 overall and 3-0 in the WBL. Wapakoneta slips to 2-7 overall and 0-3 in league play.
“We were in the locker room (after the match) talking about going ahead 2-0, and then being able to come back from a loss in the third set, and just continue to run the offense and take care of business,” St. Marys head coach Caley Yoder said. “It’s not an easy thing to do, especially with a sophomore-filled bench, and lots of young players. We definitely have a strong starting lineup, and we can play really strong. But when we start to lose a little bit of confidence, we can see the lack of experience that we have.”
St. Marys’ front line was lethal Thursday night.
Senior middle-hitter Brynn Clark led the Roughriders Thursday with 22 kills. Senior outside-hitter Syerra Greber knocked down 20 kills for St. Marys.
Clark also led St. Marys with five serving aces.
St. Marys senior libero Ashlie Nuss led the way with 33 digs.
In Thursday’s first set, the score was knotted eight times before St. Marys finally pulled away for the 8-point win. Clark knocked down six kills and served up four aces in the opening set.
In the second set, the score was knotted five times before St. Marys took control for a convincing 12-point win.
Wapakoneta was not done.
In the third set, there were 11 times the score was knotted.
However, Wapakoneta managed to close the set out for the win.
Wapakoneta senior outside-hitter Emily VanHorn recorded five of her team-high 10 kills in that third set. Clark knocked down five kills in the third for the Roughriders.
St. Marys took control midway through the fourth set and closed out the match in convincing fashion.
“Volleyball is such a momentum-type game,” Yoder said. “So, I was happy just to see us take control, and say, ‘OK, that third set is over. Now, it’s time to play another one. … Let’s win this one’. … They worked really hard.
“Brynn (Clark) had a great game tonight. We’ve been working hard to get the one-on-ones with our blockers. My setters – I just have to commend them on moving the ball around and giving them (Clark and Greber) the opportunity to swing.”
Junior libero Riley Szelagowski led Wapakoneta with 28 digs.
Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
