Lima Senior’s Jurisha Houseworth (14) and Aniyah Fisher (10) block a shot by Fremont Ross’ Abigail Cahill during Thursday night’s match at Lima Senior. See more high school volleyball photos at LimaScores.com.
Two weeks ago, Lima Senior ended its three-year winless drought in the Three Rivers Athletic Conference with a victory against Toledo Central Catholic. But since that victory, the Spartans have failed to maintained that momentum and they dropped their fifth consecutive match to Fremont Ross, 25-10, 25-16 and 25-14 in a TRAC clash Thursday.
Lima Senior falls to 3-8 on the year and 1-2 in the TRAC. Fremont Ross improved to 8-1 overall and 2-0 in the TRAC. Fremont Ross improves to 8-2 and 2-1 in conference play.
“Fremont is really good,” Spartan head coach John Zell said. “Coach (Lindi) Cahill has really turned that program around. She has a good group of young players and their middle is really fantastic and high level volleyball. They are going to compete in the TRAC.”
Behind an excellent serving game and a volatile front line, Fremont Ross overpowered the Spartans to keep them off balanced and not allowing the Spartans to set up a consistent offense. The Little Giants recorded 11 aces on the night.
“That has been our major weakness this year,” Zell said about the team’s issues with its service receiving game. “I have been trying to find three or four of our better passers. We somewhat get in a rhythm sometimes and then sometimes we end up in a bad rotation that is tough to get out of.”
Lima Senior’s Makayla Redd had two kills and six digs and Tiana Spively recorded four assists. Tatum Twining notched eight digs and Tillie Nelson produced three blocks. For Fremont Ross, Lyndi Wolf had 13 kills.
Zell added that the focus this year has been the “first touch,” and if they do not do that well they are not going to accomplish a lot.
Zell points outs out the tough competition the team has faced and they are enduring a tough stretch in the schedule.
“We’ve played some high quality teams and take a look at our losses,” Zell said. “We were 3-3 and now we are 3-8 but our losses are to Findlay, to Shawnee, who has a good program also, and Wapakoneta and they are a good program also. We are playing the tougher portion of our schedule and we are looking to battle Tuesday…and hopefully we can catch a rhythm and get back on the winning side of things.”
Zell added that this team has played some stiff competition and this team is still meshing as a unit and he continues to see the team improve with each match.
“you can see a better rhythm,” Zell said. “We have six seniors, six sophomores and a junior and we are trying to get the sophomores caught up. They have never played together. Ever. You see moments where like ‘oh, who it’s clicking,’ and then you see moments like ‘oh wow, what just happened,’ so we have just to keep working.”
Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
