UNION CITY – It was a big night for Volleyball with four of the top WOAC teams in head-to-head battles for supremacy in the league. When it was all settled Arcanum and Mississinawa Valley came away with wins to stay at the top while Ansonia and Tri-Village fell a game back with tough losses in what were both competitive matches.
Mississinawa Valley over Tri-Village 24-26, 25-13, 25-21, 25-21
This match-up had a lot of emotions involved with Blackhawks coach Taylor Rawlings having coached Tri-Village the last two seasons and now on the opposite bench, going against her former assistant coach Alaina Kirby, who is now the Patriots leader.
In the opening set, the two teams battled back with the lead changing multiple times until the Hawks got on a roll to pull in front 21-17, and looking like they had the momentum.
But the Lady Patriots found a way to battle back and eventually tied it up a 23 all then took a 24-23 lead prompting Mississinawa to call a timeout. It would work in their favor, finally breaking the serve of sophomore Aubrey Eley, who was on a 5-point run to tie the game at 24.
The Pats broke the Hawks’ serve to go up 25-24, and then junior Zoe Ayette set one in the middle to senior Gabby Kirby, who slammed one into the back row to take set one 26-24.
“You never want to start out down one set at home, so we had a conversation about playing our game and worry about what we can control by being disciplined and doing our job the best we can each point,” Mississinawa coach Taylor Rawlings summed up after the first set.
Mississinawa would do just that in the second and was in complete control throughout with good service, good sets, and strong hitting up front from Makenna Hoggatt, Allyson Waymire, Cora Hoggatt, and Gretchen Rodeheffer as they cruised to a 25-14 second set win.
In the third set, Tri-Village set the tone early, going up 12-8, prompting a Mississinawa timeout. Senior setter Danika Neargarder sparked the Hawks with four straight service points to close the gap. But the Patriots battled tough, still holding an 18-16 lead, only to see four more points by MV to go up 20-18.
Mississinawa would close it out 25-21, Cora Hoggatt scoring two straight points and Allyson Waymire hitting the last two for their second set victory, now leading 2-1.
Tri-Village would hold an early fourth set lead 6-4 only to see the Hawks get hot, going on a 7-point run to go in front 11-6.
There was plenty of action in this one and lead changes as the Patriots rallied back to go and appeared to go in front 22-17, but a reversal was made on the point, making the score 21-18, and it seemed like the momentum shifted back to the Mississinawa after that.
From there on it was all Lady Hawks rattling off the seven straight points to claim the 4th set and the match to stay perfect in the WOAC at 3-0 and 5-1 overall on the year.
Leaders for the Blackhawks in the game were Allyson Waymire with 17 kills and 16 digs. Makenna Hoggatt had 15 kills and 13 digs, Cora Hoggatt had 12 kills and 27 digs and two service aces. Danika Neargarder had 47 assists for Mississinawa.
Tri-Village would fall for the first time in WOAC, now stands at 2-1 and 4-3 overall.
After the game, Mississinawa coach Taylor Rawling was thrilled to get the win.
“That was a great volleyball match right there. It’s what the people pay to see. You know, I think my girls pulled it together in the end, we played as a team, and that’s all you can ask for as a coach.
Obviously, there was a lot of emotion. I want to be proud for the (Tri-Village) girls too. I coached them for two years, but I’m really proud of my girls tonight for pulling out the win. Both teams had a lot of fight out there, and to get this win against one of the top teams early in the year in our league was big,” Rawlings concluded.
Tri-Village coach Alaina Kirby talked about the emotions of the game as well.
“Taylor and I talked earlier today, and we both hated that one of us had to lose and figured it’d be kind of like a down-to-the-wire match. She knows my girls and I kind of know a little bit about her girls, as I’ve coached a couple of them before, but we knew it was probably going to be back and forth, back and forth, and whoever really showed up to play and made the least errors would win,” Kirby stated.
“I feel like we came, we showed up to play, but we just had a few more errors than they did tonight, and give them credit, they had a few more hitters than we did, and that was the difference,” Kirby added.
We tried to bring a lot of energy, and we just kept fighting. And I’m super proud of them for that,” concluded Kirby
