NEW WASHINGTON — It was an early season showdown Thursday night as both squads came in at 3-0 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference and 6-0 overall.
But it was Mohawk’s height and power that pushed them past Buckeye Central in four sets. The Buckettes took the first set 25-23, before falling 25-8, 25-19, 25-13.
It was exactly the start that Buckeye Central head coach Missy McDougal wanted. Mohawk led early, but the hosts stormed back to lead 15-11 in the first set, courtesy of a 10-4 run.
“That’s the first time we came out and played well in the first set in about four or five games. I was really happy. The girls played hard. They were scrappy,” she said.
“Mohawk’s a really good team. They’re big and I think we’re just young and inconsistent. We showed that we can compete with the best in the league. Now we have to learn to do it consistently.
“We need to buckle down and be disciplined. We were not where we were supposed to be at times. When you play good teams, you can’t get away with that,” McDougal said.
Biz Klopp, the Lady Warriors 6-foot-1 junior, led the way with several first-set kills. But Adrienne Jury, Mara McDougal and Emma Keller countered with points for the Buckettes.
Mohawk head coach Eric Hoover said his team had a rough start.
“We couldn’t find the court. Kept hitting it out of bounds. I thought it was kind of sloppy both ways. We didn’t deserve to win the first set,” he said. “We just needed to fight back and clean up the errors.”
The visitors came out smoking in the second set and took a 7-1 lead and coasted to the 17-point win.
Klopp had a huge night, getting 31 kills to go along with seven blocks and an ace. Not all the kills were hard hits, as she mixed in several dinks over the heads of the BC front line.
“You’ve got to have a variety of shots. They all count the same. That’s something that we’ve talked about with her. When you hit it as hard as she does straight down, everyone is dug in and anticipating a hard shot. You tip it short, and it makes it difficult,” Hoover said.
Klopp got plenty of help as sophomores Chloe Miller added 10 kills and Jayla Huffman seven. Averie Barth recorded 15 digs, Caitlin Ogg 14, Allison Russell 12, and Emerson Gurney 11.
Miller added four blocks and Aubrey Gottfried and Trenna Johnson three each for Mohawk. Ogg netted 45 assists and two aces.
McDougal acknowledged Klopp’s ability.
“She’s a great player and we don’t have anybody even close to that size. We have a 5-7 blocker on her, and she can cut it right off that blocker. She’s powerful. She’s big. She’s put the work in to be good.
“We didn’t have an answer for her. Honestly, I don’t think many people in the league have an answer for her. They’re blessed with height, and they put a lot of pressure on our defense.”
Jury, a junior, did yeoman’s duty on the court.
“She had a great game. She’s getting triple blocked with three girls that are a lot bigger than her,” McDougal said.
“We fell apart (in the second set). We were coming off that high of winning that first set. Even last year, I try to warn them what was coming. We got stuck in serve-receive and they hit some corner shots that rolled in there real nice.”
Buckeye Central staked a 3-0 lead to start the fourth set. But Klopp registered three kills and Mohawk got two more from Huffman to push their team ahead 9-7. A pair of serving aces by Ogg made it 11-7.
Mara McDougal’s two kills got the Buckettes back to within four and eventually to 13-12. But Ogg’s kill and Gurney’s ace pushed it out of reach.
Mohawk moves to 7-0 and 4-0 in the league. Buckeye slips to 6-1 and 3-1.
“That’s a huge win early in the season. That’s a very good team that’s going to win a lot of games,” Hoover said. “We had a good mix of people who can do things if someone is having an off game. I was happy that we had that next-play mentality.
“Caitlin is usually our energy, our vocalist. She wasn’t feeling the best tonight so other people stepped up and took over that role,” Hoover said.
“Seneca East was still undefeated in the league. You have to be ready to play every night in the N10.”
The schedule gets no easier for the Buckettes, facing Bellevue in a non-league game on Saturday before hosting Seneca East Tuesday night.
“This week and next week are really tough for us. We’ve got things to work on in practice,” McDougal said. “Tonight, they were a little bit too much for us.”
Mohawk won the junior varsity match 25-20, 25-14.