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Central Mountain volleyball overcomes slow start, sweeps Loyalsock at home

By KENNY VARNER 3 min read

MILL HALL – The Central Mountain volleyball team opened its week with a home contest against Loyalsock with hopes of picking up win No. 11 on the season. On this night, the Wildcats would capture the victory, 3-0 behind set scores of 25-19, 25-12 and 25-9.

After a slow start in the first set, the Wildcats started to find their rhythm, coming back from a five-point deficit to take the first set, 25-19.

Loyalsock started out taking an early 5-1 advantage thanks to four service points from Claire Nealis. But the Wildcats would quickly battle their way back into it. After a time out, Central Mountain went right to work.

Alana Ingram ended the Lancers run as she blasted a shot past the front row, giving her team the ball back and some momentum. Trailing 5-2, Central Mountain was able to tie the game on three consecutive service points from Allison Koch.

Highlighting the run was a blast by Ingram and a spike by Sofia Kelley. Both would play a valuable role in the team’s victory with their clutch front line play.

"We just talked about how our response is so important, and being able to identify that we had a slow start and correcting it quickly, and then being able to execute the rest of the match," said Central Mountain head coach Jenna Schienke when asked about their response after a slow start. "Also, seeing a different lineup in the third set. I think everybody coming in did a really good job. So, I was really happy with tonight.”

But despite having their lead tied, Loyalsock had another run left in them early on. The Lancers went on another run to get back and extend the lead to 12-7. Picking up the service points in Loyalsock run was Aly Hughes, who rattled off four service points.

But the Wildcats once again chipped away at the Lancers' lead. It would be single service points from Kelley, Gracie Grieco and Katelyn Walker that would tie the set at 15-15. From there, the Wildcats would start to heat up as they would go on a 10-4 run to take the comeback victory to go up 1-0.

In the second set, the contest belonged to Central Mountain from start to finish as the Wildcats’ front line was fed some clutch passes for spikes and slams by Kelley, Ingram and Walker. The setters had turned the momentum around as they fed the ball constantly to their front line, leading to the win in all three games.

After a back-and-forth start to the second, the Wildcats would turn their offense up to another level as they quickly went up 9-2 behind seven consecutive service points from Koch. It would be a lead Central Mountain never give up as they continued to hit the Lancers with shot after shot, as they took a 2-0 lead with the 25-12 win.

"Our setters have been really strong for us. They did a really good job moving the ball around, seeing our block and knowing how we can set up our hitters to best execute," said Schienke. "I think it’s something that we’ve progressed in really well throughout the year, and we’re seeming to really come together as we get closer to postseason.”

Rounding out the night, Central Mountain stepped up their game even more as they were able to force Loyalsock into mistakes while the frontline continued to barrage the Lancers, taking home the game, set and match with the dominating 25-9 victory.

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