Ottoville’s Elise Kramer hits a spike against Miller City’s Savannah Niese during Thursday night’s match at Ottoville.
OTTOVILLE — Ottoville prepared for Miller City and it paid off with a 3-1 win in a key Putnam County League Clash Thursday night. The Big Green scored a 25-19, 25-17, 20-25 and 25-22 victory.
With the win, Ottoville stays unbeaten in the PCL with a 3-0 mark and improves to 10-4 overall. Miller City suffers its first loss in the league, 2-1, and on the season 13-1.
“it was a good, strong win for us tonight,” Ottoville head coach Chuck Sperry said. “We came into the game knowing we had a good opportunity to beat these guys. We watched and scouted them and they are young. It was a good team effort tonight. Everyone contributed.
“We changed things up and everyone acknowledge it to get ready for this and we just have to get ready for the rest of the Putnam County teams.”
Miller City head coach Keri Wenzinger said her team’s inexperience showed tonight.
“We play a lot of freshmen and sophomores and I think that showed today,” Wenzinger said. “Our serving was so inconsistent and we couldn’t get into a groove. We maybe would get a kill and then serve it out. We were just too inconsistent.”
A solid serving game was one of the keys to the Big Green’s win and it not only contributed to major runs but it kept the Wildcats on their heels throughout the contest as they continually played catch-up. In the first two sets, Ottoville owned leads as big as 12 and nine points before securing the win.
“That’s a big thing,” Sperry said. “Our serving is really good. We are very aggressive with our serving and I tell out girls to just put it in the center of the court and we will play our defense. We had some strategies that we worked on. This was a big win for their confidence.”
On the night, the Big Green had 12 aces on the night.
In the third game, the pattern appeared to be the same as Ottoville had a 17-11 advantage but the Wildcats, who were plagued with unforced errors and self-inflicted mistakes, outscored the Big Green 18-9 down the stretch stave off the loss.
But in the fourth game, Ottoville once again opened up a 16-12 lead and this time held off the Wildcats
“We were 12-0 for a reason and a lot of it is because we fight back.”
Elise Kramer was the main offensive force for Ottoville. The lone senior on the squad recorded 24 kills and effectively mixed up her spikes or dinks depending on the situation in order to offset Miller City’s outstanding blocking abilities.
“This is big for her (Kramer) and what makes it so great is that all the other players quit and she stuck it out and everybody is developing to be a player and they are playing like she is.”
For Miller City, Morgan Verhoff had 15 kills and Tori Wenzinger notched 42 digs. Josie Otto had 36 assists and 18 digs.
Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
