Cleaning up

NEW KNOXVILLE - St. Marys came into Tuesday's match on a hot streak and showed no signs of cooling off.

St. Marys pulled away midway through each set for a 25-15, 25-13, 25-13 win over New Knoxville in an Auglaize County volleyball match at the Barn.

"I thought we did a really nice job from the service line," St. Marys coach Caley Yoder said. "And I always feel like New Knoxville is such a scrappy defensive team, so Lily Rammel did a nice job mixing it up to our hitters, and then we were just really executing tonight."

The Roughriders led the first set wire-to-wire, scoring the first three points and extending the lead to five at 8-3 before the Rangers responded. Olivia Lammers cut the lead to two with a kill inside the back line, and after St. Marys went up 15-10, a kill by Malayna Puckett and a Roughriders receiving error brought the Rangers back within three.

From there, St. Marys took control. Darcie Liming got the serve back with a kill through the block, then combined with Brynn Clark to block a shot to restore the five-point lead. Syerra Greber served up five straight points and Clark added a three-point run, with Lily Rammel hitting a shot that trickled over the top of the net to finish off the set win.

After trading the first few points of the second set, Halle Huston put St. Marys ahead with a kill, Gracelyn Johns opened up some breathing room with a three-point service run, and Ashlie Nuss and Rammel combined on an 8-1 run to for a commanding 18-8 lead.

New Knoxville coach Madison Lammers called timeout and gave a spirited address, and the Rangers responded with a four-point run, including two kills and ace from Brynn Egbert. Clark spiked an errant pass to stop the momentum, then served up the final five points, including an ace.

"Brynn's really active at the net for us," Yoder said. "Our offense really runs well when all our hitters are active, really working to get off the net and be part of the offense."

Early runs by Greber and Liming put the Roughriders up 8-3 in the third, and after New Knoxville cut the lead to three at 15-12 before Clark slammed home a kill off the receive to hand the ball to Greber. Greber stepped up with a seven-point service run, including two aces, and Clark recorded three more kills down the stretch.

St. Marys' serve kept the Rangers from getting in system the whole match. Between aces, receiving errors and hitting errors off the serve receive, the Roughriders earned 22 points without facing a return shot.

"We really focus on, number one, just consistently getting the ball over and in," Yoder said. "But we do lots of spot-serving during practice, so we've really been focusing on that so far this season."

Clark finished with a match-high 11 kills and five aces. Greber notched five aces as well, Nuss finished with 11 digs and Rammel added 24 assists. Brynn Egbert led New Knoxville with five kills and notched three aces, while Keianna Wellman added four kills and three blocks.

St. Marys' last set loss came against Versailles in the Cavalier Spikeoff on Aug. 20, with three-set wins over Fort Recovery, Defiance and Pandora-Gilboa since.

"We're really focusing on the head game," Yoder said. "If someone shanks a pass or spikes a ball into the net, we don't want them to focus on it. We want them to go point-by-point and continue to play their hardest. Mistakes are fine, we're going to work right through them as a team."

The Roughriders look to keep up the momentum in their first Western Buckeye League match on Thursday in Wapakoneta, while New Knoxville starts its Midwest Athletic Conference schedule by hosting Delphos St. John's.