NORTH ROBINSON (Crawford County Now) — A 48-hour respite was plenty of time to refuel and refocus the Lady Eagles.
After dropping a four-set match to Buckeye Central on Tuesday night, Colonel Crawford responded with a sweep of Mohawk to take third place in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference Thursday at Mac Morrison Gymnasium.
‘We made a few adjustments, and we had a little chat last night at practice,” said Crawford head coach Jaime Valentine. “When they decide they can be confident, then we play like a very different team.”
The result was a 25-18, 26-24, 25-16 win over the Lady Warriors.
“I was very proud of them coming back off that loss, a heartbreaker for us obviously. But knowing we still had to show up today and play. We put in a different kind of lineup last night and they did a great job.”
Sophomore Reese Redman led the way with 17 kills, unofficially. Alaina Parr added 11 and Emmi Powers 7.
“Defensively we played a much better game and that was our goal. We made some adjustments and had to have some freedom to move some kids around to cover some balls that we weren’t getting before,” she said.
“Our setters didn’t have to worry about getting to the net and it was a lot more consistent for our offense and it meshed better overall.”
The hosts led 9-3 to open the match despite Mara Haynes’ play at the net for Mohawk. She had 3 of her 10 total kills in that set.
“They have four really good hitters and when we let them get in system all night long it makes for a long night. We did not handle the ball well at all,” Lady Warriors head coach Eric Hoover said.
“We were in position a lot of times, but we were shanking passes that we don’t normally do. Some of it was credit to Crawford with what they’re giving us. We just couldn’t get it going long enough. We had an opportunity to steal one in that second set, but we had mental errors.”
Set two featured 8 ties and Mohawk tied it at 20 with a Jayla Huffman kill. She added another and Haynes knotted the set at 24-24, but a Powers block and a Mohawk hit out of bounds gave CC the two-point win.
“Instead of finishing it we found ways to lose it. We had a lot of errors in every aspect of the game and that’s not what we’re about as a team,” Hoover said.
The Lady Eagles fell behind 3-0 in the third set but rallied quickly. Chloe Miller had a pair of kills, but Redman, Powers and Lila Plesac countered. A 12-4 run keyed the comeback.
Mohawk’s Miller added 9 kills and Huffman 5.
Colonel Crawford moves to 9-3, 17-5 and Mohawk is at 10-2, 18-4 heading into their respective sectional tournaments next week.
The Lady Eagles host the winner of Tuesday’s Division V sectional semifinal between Wynford and Edison. Mohawk welcomes Seneca East in a D-VI sectional final, with both games at 6 p.m. Thursday.
“You’re going to run into teams pretty quickly who will make you pay for it. We’ll learn from it and move on, getting back to playing the way we can play,” Hoover said.
“We’re prepared for next week with the winner of Wynford and Edison, then either Willard or Oak Harbor. We’re excited to be a part of it and hopefully make it to Bluffton University and play for a district championship,” Valentine said.
Mohawk won the junior varsity contest, 25-13, 25-10.