Miller City’s Morgan Verhoff hits a spike against Columbus Grove’s Kendal Palte during Wednesday night’s match in Miller City.
Nate Reynolds | The Lima News
MILLER CITY — The Miller City volleyball squad got out the broom Wednesday night and swept away Putnam County League foe Columbus Grove 25-5, 25-17, 25-18.
The Wildcats brought at 13 set winning streak into the match. Grove had just come off of a 3-0 sweep of Delphos Jefferson and came into the contest 2-4 against the hosts’ 9-1 mark.
Miller City came into the contest with a 9-1 mark versus the Lady Bulldogs record of 2-4 (0-1 in the PCL), Miller City took a first step toward a hoped-for league title.
“It was huge. I mean, the PCL is so strong. This year, every team has a chance of winning every single game and every chance of every team has a chance of losing every game.” Miller City coach Keri Morman said.
They didn’t waste time in the opening set. They tallied the first four points and after a tip by Grove’s Chloe Buckley (6 kills), netted the next 13 points led by 3 kills each by Morgan Verhoff (13 kills) and Cloe Kuhlman (8 kills). They continued the onslaught and took set 1 on an ace by Verhoff.
The set saw the ‘Cats run up a 13-0 streak pacing them to a 17-1 advantage paced by the serving of Savanna Niese’s 5 aces in the set and assists by Josie Otto.
“Josie super quick, and she is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met, so she is just always flying around and she always gets that second hit.” Morman said.
The battle was joined in set 2. Up 8-6, the Wildcats went on a 6-0 spurt that gave them breathing room and later they doubled up the Grove score 16-8 on a Verhoff cut shot. However, the Bulldogs could never get on a run and Miller City took a 2-set lead on a Grove hitting error (17 for the match).
The third set saw both teams with the lead and four ties. From 13-13, a spike by Verhoff gave the hosts the lead for good and the Bulldogs could not get on an equalizing run. A hit off the defense by Niese (7 kills, 5 aces) completed the match.
“They did a good job when Chloe Kuhlman was pounding some they did a good job hitting it to her so then she couldn’t get out to it. So I mean, we just had to adjust to the adjustments that they made not just keep going, but they got tough. They got tougher as the game went on.” Morman said.
Miller City was led by Otto with 38 assists, with the hosts committing 11 errors.
Claire Kiene had 19 assists for Grove and Nicole Nesby contributed 6 kills.
Dave Boninsegna wrote this story for LimaScores.com. Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
