Redskins stay perfect on season

MARIA STEIN - Once again, an early deficit failed to rattle St. Henry.

The Redskin spikers dropped the first set to Marion Local at The Hanger Thursday night but charged back to post a 20-25, 25-15, 25-19, 25-14 victory over the Flyers to remain undefeated at 17-0 and 6-0 in the Midwest Athletic Conference.

"That's the biggest challenge for this team right now. The last couple of matches I felt like we came out really slow in the first set," St. Henry Coach Diana Kramer said. "I think we try to do too much. We try to hit the ball too hard. We try to do everything perfect and the game of volleyball is not perfect.

"But I love how this team responds," she continued. "After that first set, they came out refocused, re-energized and they stayed composed."

The first set was close throughout, as neither team was able to build a margin of more than two points until Marion Local sophomore Lexi Arling served up the final five points, including an ace, to give the Flyers a 25-20 win.

"We came out firing on all cylinders that first set," Marion Local coach Erica Fullenkamp said. "St. Henry responded and we just couldn't get back to the level we were at for the first set."

An 8-1 run midway through the second set gave the Redskins all the cushion they needed. And St. Henry jumped out to an early lead in the third set and never trailed.

Over the last three sets, Marion Local served with the lead just three times, and that was very early in the final set.

"We talk about going back to the service line and scoring points in every single rotation, because when you play with the lead, you play with so much more confidence," Kramer said. "And that usually means the other team doesn't have confidence, and in the game of volleyball, where it's 100 percent mental, that makes such a big difference."

Fullenkamp agreed that playing from behind was difficult for her team late in the match.

"When a team like St. Henry gets a lot of momentum, it's almost impossible to get it back," she said. "Their style of play is high risk, high reward. They're up there swinging hard, they're serving hard and they're pretty consistent with it. That's what makes them a really exceptional team."

The Redskins outhit the Flyers by a wider margin as the match went along. Olivia Niekamp had a big night with 17 kills and Claudia Heitkamp added nine kills. Madison Broering paced the team in assists with 39, while Katie Gerlach recorded 25 digs.

Makenzie Albers and Andrea Wynk paced the Flyers with eight and seven kills, respectively. Tyla Bergman led the team in assists with 23. Carrie Fesenmyer had 17 digs followed by Chloe Bertke with 16 and Jessie Kramer with 11.

With the loss Marion Local falls to .500 in the MAC at 3-3 and slipped to 9-5 overall. They Flyers are back in action Monday at Fort Loramie and return to MAC action next Thursday at Parkway.

St. Henry travels to Bluffton Monday and then hosts MAC foe New Bremen on Thursday.