IAC VOLLEYBALL: NEWARK VALLEY FALLS TO WAVERLY IN 'DIG PINK' MATCH (17 PHOTOS) (2018-10-15)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
NEWARK VALLEY - Waverly came out strong against Newark Valley in Monday evening's "Dig Pink" game, however, even though it looked like the Wolverines might cruise to victory, the Cardinals did make them earn their 3-0 sweep.

Waverly pulled away early in game one, winning 25-11. It wasn't so easy afterward as the Wolverines had to dig their way out of early holes to win the next two sets by 25-21 and 25-17 scores.

NV head coach Brandy Duke felt the issues surrounding her team in this IAC South Large School clash were more mental than anything else.

"Our mental game right now is really struggling," she said. "I don't know why all of the sudden, because they were up all season long. We had really strong games. Even if we didn't pull the win out, we would really finish strong, but their mental game is kind of getting them here at the end of the season for some reason."

Trying to find a fix for that problem is far more complex, than fixing actual volleyball miscues, such as poor serve receives or setting errors.

"To me, as a coach, you work on it as a coach, but I can't do it for them on the court. They have to be able to pull it together," she said. "We have a couple girls who you can look at and say, ‘get it together' and they kind of do, but sometimes it just trickles off and trickles off, and then it just kind of snowballs from there unfortunately."

"We took control the first game," said Waverly head coach Kesha Sinsabaugh, who pinpointed what she felt were her team's shortcomings in the latter games.

"The second was probably more serve receive, third game was definitely hits out of bounds, way out of bounds, nowhere close to the end line, so that kind of does not help us."

The Wolverines were missing two players due to illness, so their teammates were forced to step up and help fill those voids.

"That doesn't help, so we changed things up to start, confuses them whenever I change something," Sinsabaugh said. "They were just a  little bit out of whack, but we were able to overcome it though and work with what we had on the floor. That was the positive I saw from tonight."

Waverly bolted to a 5-0 lead in the opening set, then methodically pulled away from there. The next two games opened with a different feel as the host Cardinals worked a 9-3 advantage in game two and a 7-3 lead in game three.

The second set would be tied at nine, 10 and 11, then again at 20 as the visitors never led by more than four points, at 19-15 and 25-21.

Game three stayed tight for awhile, even after Waverly came back to go ahead on the strength of a 9-0 run to build a 21-13 lead.

Sinsabaugh also thought the match was a little off from its usual Waverly-Newark Valley pace.

"It felt slow, back and forth," she said. "Usually, it's very powerful between us and Newark Valley. They both had good hits, we both had good floor. It just felt a little slow in here tonight."

Allie Wandell had seven kills, 12 digs, eight points (1 ace) and a block for NV, and Maddy Hartenstein handed out 13 assists and served up four points. Jordan Stiffarm added two kills an seven digs, Kayla Malarkey had two kills and six points, Chelsea Fuller chipped in with a block, and Megan Kilbride added an ace.

Chloe Croft dished out 14 assists and matched it with 14 digs, Paige Lewis had five kills, 10 digs and 15 service points, and Adrianah Clinton had five kills and nine points, including four aces for the Wolverines. Sydney Meyers chipped in with six kills and 12 digs, Siera Kirk added 20 digs and eight points, Courtney Stillman pitched in with 13 points, and Morgan Adams added a block.


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IN PHOTO 1: Newark Valley's Libby Northrop. PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.