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Marion Local's Grace Moeller stretches to hit the ball as St. Henry's Morgan Baumer (3) and Karlee Buschur (11) defend.
ST. HENRY - The first two sets of Thursday's Marion Local-St. Henry volleyball matchup were about as expected: two close sets with a number of extended rallies and big hitting.
The second set, though, had St. Henry serving up a storm.
The Redskins came through the Midwest Athletic Conference battle with a 26-24, 25-12, 25-19 win over the Flyers to move to 1-1 in MAC play and 7-2 overall.
"The first game, we had a lot of errors," said St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck. "We just kind of hung around."
The teams went through 11 ties and five lead changes in the opening set. The Flyers led 3-0 on a trio of Nora Eckstein service points, but could not get more than three points ahead for the rest of the set.
Marion was the first to reach 20 points at 20-19 after a Redskin hitting error, but St. Henry went up 22-20 after a Ellie Fullenkamp kill and back-to-back aces from Morgan Baumer. Marion rebounded with a block from Grace Moeller and a kill from Kate Ashman to make it 23-22, and after the Redskins tied the set and got to set point first on a Flyer hitting error, Grace Moeller came through again with a kill to tie it at 24-all and send Natalie Evers back to serve.
St. Henry's Chloe Gels (1) spikes the ball as Marion Local's Rachel Kuether defends during Thursday's MAC volleyball match at Redskin Gymnasium. The Redskins defeated the Flyers in three straight sets.
Chloe Gels quickly turned the tide with a kill to make it 25-24, then Molly Winner put away the set-winner with a kill.
"I'm proud we pulled out the first game," said Rosenbeck. "We've been struggling finishing tough matches."
Baumer went back to serve to start the second set and went on a tear, serving up three aces in a nine-point run that includes kills by Gels and Fullenkamp. Chloe Ronnebaum finally stopped the run with a kill, but the Flyers were unable to get closer than seven points the remainder of the set as Gels recorded five kills during the run.
"We came out in that second game with confidence and aggression at the service line," said Rosenbeck. "I thought we made some big plays at key moments."
"Second set, St. Henry started making their serves and got on some serving runs," said Flyers coach Anthony Chappel. "We knew it was coming. We prepped for a team like that. They've got a lot of hitters and servers."
The Flyers bounced back and had an 8-4 lead early in the third set as Grace Moeller, Ronnebaum and Brooke Evers all had kills, but with Gels back to serve for St. Henry, the Redskins came back to tie with an ace and kills by Karlee Buschur and Baumer. The Redskins sent Olivia Gast back to serve with the score knotted at 9-all, and the sophomore rattled off four straight points, two on aces, to put the Redskins in front to stay 13-9.
Marion was able to get within two several times in the set, including at 19-17, but the Redskins put away the match down the stretch.
"Marion has unbelievable defense," said Rosenbeck. "They got some balls back that I didn't think they would get back. It was great for our girls to stay aggressive and continue to play because Marion was getting a lot of balls back to us."
"That second set was brutal," said Chappel. "First and third set, lot of back and forth, but it came down who put the ball inbounds more and stayed a little more aggressive."
St. Henry's Lydia Werling recorded 41 assists in the Redskins' three-set win.
Gels finished with 15 kills to go with 13 assists with Fullenkamp adding 11 kills. Lydia Werling set up the attack with 41 assists. Rya Buschur had 22 digs and Baumer finished with five aces and 17 digs, as the Redskins served up 12 aces as a team.
Grace Moeller led Marion with 10 kills and seven blocks (five solo blocks). Natalie Evers had 23 assists with Nora Eckstein adding 12 digs.
St. Henry has a week off before taking to the court again next Thursday at Minster. Marion Local is back in action on Tuesday hosting Anna.
