NORTH ROBINSON — It was senior night at Colonel Crawford High School as the Eagles battled Wynford in a huge momentum builder for both teams.
And the seniors certainly stepped up for the Eagles.
Of the 43 kills the Eagles gathered in the match, 34 came from Crawford seniors Alivia Treisch, Rylee Ritzhaupt, Emma Scott, Reagan Ritzhaupt, Abby Martin, Hailey Webster, E’mari Stewart, and Molli Teglovic.
Because of Crawford’s aggressive net play, it was able to come away with a 25-8, 25-16, 25-18 win over the Royals.
With the win, the Eagles are 8-4 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, 15-4 overall, while Wynford dropped to 4-8 in the league, 7-10 overall.
Crawford coach Taylor Kelso felt that her seniors led the way Thursday night.
“They all showed up,” Kelso said. “It was very emotional for them. I have eight great seniors, they’re great girls. So proud of them and it’s always an emotional night when it’s senior night.”
Kelso thought that the emotion of the evening carried her girls.
“There’s a lot of people here also,” she added. “I just told them ‘You’re going to have a little bit of emotions at the beginning.’ And then that timer starts for the warmups, and we got to get focused, and my girls did that.”
Compared to Crawford’s 43 kills, Wynford had just 15.
Wynford coach Clara Adelsperger felt that her team struggled at the net.
“They’re really good,” Adelsperger said of the Eagles. “They’re very good with a strong front row, lots of big blocks. And their defense really strong. Their libero got some pickups at the end, too.”
The Eagles came out strong, scoring 10 of the first 13 points of the first game. Wynford cut the lead to 10-5 on a Reese McGuire kill, but the Eagles scored seven of the next eight points and never looked back, scoring the final seven points of the set.
The second game was tied at 6-6, 7-7, 8-8 and 9-9 before the Eagles built a 15-13 lead on a Mira Holt kill.
McGuire scored a kill late in the set, cutting the Eagles’ lead to 19-16, before Crawford scored the final six points of the set.
Crawford started quickly in the third set, taking a 4-1 lead on a Martin kill before Wynford got the score back to 6-5 on an Emma Steiger kill.
From there, Crawford built the lead to 12-5 on Rylee Ritzhaupt serves before increasing the margin to 18-10 on a Ritzhaupt kill.
At 21-14, the Eagles got kills from Reagan Ritzhaupt, Niyah Shipman, Rylee Ritzhaupt and Martin to end the match.
“We were very aggressive, we were serving aggressive, we were defense aggressive, everything,” Kelso said. “We were executing. We played very well as a team.”
Adelsperger said her girls were intimidated by Crawford’s aggressiveness.
“Our blocks kinda struggled tonight, getting good touches, which really affected our defense,” Adelsperger said. “It was kind of a combination of all that stuff. We were struggling to hit the court, because I think we were intimidated by the blocks, and it just kinda spiraled there at the end.
“I really think our hitters were intimidated. We put up some big blocks,” she added.
Kelso said she felt the team was building momentum for the tournament.
“I told them before the game that we needed to come out strong and we did that in every set,” Kelso said. “Then, after the game, I told them tonight was a huge win for us, especially going into tournaments in a couple of weeks. We had a really big win on Tuesday with Seneca East, and my girls, right now, are playing very well.”