BUCYRUS — It was senior night for the Bucyrus Lady Red volleyball team.
The team recognized their lone senior, Haylee Stratton, in a pregame ceremony, along with visiting Wynford seniors Makayla Morgan, Addison Sebring, and Briley Hildreth.
Bucyrus beat the rival Lady Royals in their first meeting at Wynford back in September and this was the last match of the regular season, setting the stage for a classic rematch.
The Lady Red seemed to have forgotten they had one last Northern 10 Athletic Conference match to play following the fanfare.
Wynford (6-15, 4-10 N10) won the first two sets handily, 25-11 and 25-13, then held off Bucyrus, 25-20 in the third set to sweep the match 3-0 at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium on Phil A. Joseph Court.
“That was, I would say, probably our best (match of the year),” Wynford coach Donielle Crall said. “We, as a team, came to play tonight. The girls wanted it, and they came to play as a team tonight.”
The difference in energy between the squads was evident early on. The Lady Red held leads of 1-0, and 2-1 in the first set, before being outscored 24-9 the rest of the way.
“There was absolutely no clicking, no clicking on the court whatsoever,” Bucyrus coach Amber Christy said. “We couldn’t pass tonight. When we did, we couldn’t get our set there.”
The Lady Red got it together enough to hang around early in the second set. The score was tied at 13-13 before the Royals reeled off the final 12 points to win 25-13.
Morgan served during that run for Wynford. For the night, Morgan had 19 service attempts with one ace.
“Makayla definitely was our server (tonight),” Crall said. “We talked about we had to become more aggressive servers, and she took that as a challenge, and she is definitely one of our better servers and she proved that tonight.”
Bucyrus made their best effort to climb back in the third set. After falling behind 6-1 to start, the Lady Red rallied to tie the set at 7-7, again at 8-8, and finally at 9-9.
They were still as close as 20-18 before the Royals closed it out at 25-20 to sweep the match.
“Wynford came and played good ball against us,” Christy said. “They swung at the ball. Our block wasn’t there. We just couldn’t defend.”
Cali Holbrook led the Royals with 15 kills. Brooke Frombaugh added 12 kills, Madisyn Watkins had 37 assists, Sebring tallied 11 kills, and Morgan finished with 19 serve attempts with one ace.
“Frombaugh had a good game tonight,” Christy said. “Their passers passed the ball to their setter, and they were able to get the job done. It all starts in the back row. If you can’t get a good pass in the air, you’re not going to get anything else, you can’t set your offense up.”
For Bucyrus, Aubrie Kimmel was 17 of 18 serving with six kills. Peyton Fackler had six kills as did Stratton.
Both coaches talked about the revenge factor in view of the result the first time the teams played.
“The first time we played them, they beat us in five,” Crall said. “That was just in the back of the girls’ minds. I said, ‘We’ve got nothing to lose. We’ve got to go out and play.’ This was a win those seniors wanted. It’s definitely a good feeling to head into the tournament with.”
Wynford will take on No. 1 seed Buckeye Central next Thursday in the Division VI sectional tournament. Bucyrus will face No. 2 seed Colonel Crawford that same day.
“Anything is possible,” Crall said. “We may go in to play the No. 1 seed, but anything can happen in tournaments.”
“We’re growing and obviously we took a step backwards tonight,” Christy said. “They need to find it before the tournament in order to stay in tournament of it will be over.”
Christy was blunt in her assessment.
“We got one block all night — one block,” Christy said. “The last time, our blocks kept us in the game. Our set selection wasn’t on par. We did not come to play the game. It was absolutely a team loss.”