Eastern’s Lady Warriors celebrate after a point against Clermont Northeastern. Photo by Garth Shanklin.
Eastern’s Emily Mullins prepares to serve the ball for the Lady Warriors. Photo by Garth Shanklin.
Eastern’s Hannah Johnston sends the ball back over the net against Western Brown. Photo by Garth Shanklin.
CNE’s Madie Gilley bumps a ball to a teammate. Photo by Garth Shanklin.
Western Brown’s Olivia Fischer rises up for a kill against Eastern. Photo by Garth Shanklin.
CNE’s Tiffany Drewry prepares to serve the ball for the Lady Rockets. Photo by Garth Shanklin.
CNE’s Sydney Norton goes for the kill against Western Brown. Photo by Garth Shanklin.
Western Brown’s Lacey Patten sets up a teammate in a tri-match at Eastern. Photo by Garth Shanklin.
Western Brown’s Kate Stratton prepares to serve the ball against CNE. Photo by Garth Shanklin.
Three local volleyball teams battled it out in a trio of closely contested matches at Eastern Brown High School on Saturday, August 27.
Squads from Clermont Northeastern and Western Brown joined the host Lady Warriors for the morning tri-match. By the time the final whistle blew, Western Brown had picked up a pair of wins. CNE finished the day 1-1 with Eastern coming up just short in a pair of defeats.
The morning started with Western Brown taking on the hosts. The Lady Broncos won that matchup in two sets, 25-20, 25-17.
Eastern led the first set early as the Lady Broncos had a tough time working together on the court.
“Little bit of miscommunication,” Western Brown head coach Danika Ratcliff said. “They just have to communicate better. Once they get the ball rolling, they’re unstoppable.”
That ball did start rolling quickly in the first set and a 15-6 run by the Lady Broncos put it out of reach. Western Brown jumped ahead 7-2 in the second set and never looked back.
Olivia Fischer paced the Lady Broncos with six kills. Lacey Patten tallied eight assists and a pair of aces. Western Brown recorded seven blocks as a team including three by Alyssa Campbell.
Eastern was led by Emily Mullins’ six kills. Morgan Malott had six assists and two aces. Olivia Shelton also recorded two aces and a block. Mullins and Sarah Clark tied for the team lead with eight digs each.
After a short break, the Lady Broncos faced off against Clermont Northeastern in the second game of the morning. A pair of aces from Isabella Ernst gave the Lady Broncos a 2-0 lead. They pushed that margin to 7-0 before CNE took a timeout.
Western Brown would win the first set 25-19. CNE pulled ahead in the second and evened the match at one with a 25-15 win in the second set.
The third set was a back-and-forth battle. Western Brown led 21-19 only to see CNE pull back into it and tie things up at 22. The two teams were tied at 25 before Western took the final two points to win the set 27-25 and the match 2-1.
Cassidy Armstrong tallied 13 kills for the Lady Broncos against CNE. Ernst finished the game with five aces. Patten recorded 17 assists.
“Our passing was really on today,” Ratcliff said. “A lot of great passes, a lot of great opportunities out of our offense.”
Tiffany Drewry had seven kills for CNE. Bella Bosley totaled 14 assists and Sydney Norton added three aces. Madie Gilley led the Lady Rockets with nine digs and Genevieve Clevenger added a pair of blocks.
“Western Brown was a really tough opponent,” CNE head coach Emma Keough said. “I felt like our girls played good enough to win, unfortunately a couple things didn’t go our way at the end but I was proud of the way they rallied back against a really good Eastern team.”
The Lady Rockets had to rally again against Eastern Brown. The Lady Warriors led 9-3 early but CNE cut that deficit to 12-11 prior to an Eastern timeout. CNE would go on to take the first set 25-20.
“I think we got a little tired,” Keough said. “Whenever we called the first timeout, we talked about expecting more out of ourselves and I feel like they really took that to heart, made some adjustments and found a way to get it done.”
After another early deficit in the second set, CNE pulled back ahead 17-16. The Lady Rockets would take that set 25-20 and the match 2-0.
Bosley recorded seven kills and eight assists. Gilley also finished with eight assists. Tiffany Drewry totaled two aces and a block.
Mullins totaled seven kills for Eastern against CNE. Clark had eight assists. Olivia Shelton, Sophia Edmenstin and Malott recorded one ace each. Mullins tallied 13 digs with Edmenstin adding 10. Shelton also had three blocks.
“Overall, I think we did well,” Eastern head coach Taylor Holloway said. “We’re developing and improving as a team and these two teams helped us see what we needed to work on to have a great rest of the season.”
Holloway went into detail about some specific aspects of the team’s game that could use improvement.
“We need more communication, trust in each other on and off the court,” Holloway said. “The tips, we need to get quicker on our feet. We like to slow it down on our side so when they come back and it’s quicker we can’t see them as fast or we’re not there to cover.”
Still, the first-year head coach has seen improvement already.
“Last year, they struggled having that first touch but we definitely improved a lot on that,” Holloway said.
CNE is now 3-2 overall is slated to visit New Richmond on Thursday, September 1. Eastern (2-4) travels to Clinton-Massie for a tri-match with the Lady Falcons and Bethel-Tate on September 3.
The 6-1 Lady Broncos, winners of six straight since a season-opening loss to Taylor, are off until Wednesday, September 7 against Wilmington.