St. Henry beats Parkway

ST. HENRY - Serving aggressive was a topic of conversation for the St. Henry volleyball team in recent weeks, coach Tricia Rosenbeck said.

Her players, especially Alana Kunkler, were listening attentively.

Kunkler played the role of sharpshooter while serving on Tuesday night in the Redskins' three-set victory (25-15, 25-22 and 25-19) over MAC rival Parkway.

The junior had five aces - including back-to-back ones at a key point in the second set - and the Redskins totaled 13 aces as a team in the victory on Senior Night.

Addy Vaughn kicked off the night of aces with three aces as part of a six-point service run to open the first set. Olivia Niekamp, Britney Siefring and Danielle Lange each had kills on the run. Hitting errors by St. Henry eventually allowed Parkway to get back in the set. The Panthers trailed 11-8, but St. Henry went on a 6-0 run to take control for good. Kunkler added a couple aces down the stretch to help finish the job.

Parkway was ready to go in the second set. The teams played to six ties and three lead changes early, with no team leading by more than two points. That changed, though, with Grace Swander's ace and Sarah Gehron's kill sparking an 8-4 run to put Parkway in front 19-12.

St. Henry continued to chip away as kills by Siefring, Lange and Vaughn cut the deficit to 19-15. Parkway then had some untimely hitting errors and Vaughn and Niekamp added kills to bring St. Henry closer and set the stage for Kunkler's moment.

The Redskins trailed 21-20 when Kunkler stepped to the service line and delivered two straight aces to put her team in front for the first time since it was 8-7. Niekamp then had her eighth and ninth kills of the match to close it out.

"We really talked after the Versailles game about the importance of serving aggressively," Rosenbeck said. "Tonight, we did a great job of serving aggressively and getting them out of system. Alana had a great night at the service line and making people move. That kind of sparked us to victory in that second game."

"Our girls weren't adjusting to the ball," Parkway coach Jordan Henkle said. "We knew they were going to serve deep. We worked on it forever, because that's what every MAC team likes to do. But when you consistently jump at the ball and aren't ready to move and get stuck out of position with a bad platform, you're going to get aced a lot."

Parkway again came out strong in the next set but it didn't faze St. Henry. Clista Hellwarth had a couple kills and Alyx Slusher added an ace as the Panthers built an 8-3 lead. The Redskins came back in a hurry and shortly after, they took control. Niekamp had four kills during a 7-2 run that turned a 14-14 contest into a 21-16 lead.

"We just couldn't pass the ball, it didn't matter who we were putting back there," Henkle said. "If you can't pass the ball consistently against any MAC team, you're not going to have a very good night. When we did pass the ball, we showed that we could go on runs. We should have won games tonight, but when you can't do it consistently, when you give up a seven-point lead against a MAC team, you're not going to win matches."

Hellwarth had a team-high six kills for the Panthers. Gehron had 10 assists and Haley Hawk added nine digs for Parkway, which concludes the regular season Thursday at Minster.

Niekamp had a game-high 16 kills and Siefring finished with nine. Vaughn had 18 assists, 11 digs and tied Kunkler's game-high five aces as the Redskins improved to 14-7 overall.

"The confidence has picked up," Rosenbeck said. "It's nice to finish games. It's nice to comeback and finish games. There's still the inconsistency we'd like to figure out going into Thursday night and going into tournament. But overall, I'm happy with how we're progressing."

St. Henry will travel to face former coach Diana Kramer and the New Bremen Cardinals in the regular season finale on Thursday.

"I know that New Bremen's a great team," Rosenbeck said. "They've had a great season so far. Paige Jones is a very, very good player. We're just going to keep working hard to get better and do things right on our side of the net. Hopefully we can come away with a win."