NEW YORK STATE VOLLEYBALL: OWEGO RETURNING TO FINALS TO DEFEND TITLE (2018-11-10)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
CROSS RIVER, N.Y. - Owego will get another shot at a state championship repeat. The Indians wrapped up a return trip the pool play round of Class B state tournament with a 3-0 sweep of Section I champ Ardsley here Saturday.

"We're trying to break that even-year curse we have, so, we're there," Owego head coach Brittney Race said. "Now it's time to put it together, I guess. Showtime."

Owego won by scores of 25-17, 25-18 and 25-15 to thwart any hopes Ardsley had of unseating the defending state champions. The Indians started and finished strong, and had several two-, three- or four-point runs throughout the course of the match to maintain leads. Even when it appeared Ardsley might give Owego trouble, somebody stepped up to make the play.

Race has come to expect those little lulls every now and then.

"I think that is us," Race said. "We tend to do that kind of thing more than we don't, but I thought we were 100 times better today than we even thought about being on Tuesday, so that's really good momentum to carry us into states. That's the team we want to be and not the team we were on Tuesday."

The Indians scored the first three points of the first set and build five point-leads five times before going on a 4-point run and scoring seven of the final nine points.  

The second set saw Ardsley build a small lead early, going up 7-4 on a Madison Gordon block, but Owego didn't stay down long, battling back to tie the game at 7-7 and taking its first lead at 9-8. With the set knotted at nine, the Indians opened up a small lead with a 4-point run.

The Panthers would take a timeout, but to no avail as the Indians pushed their advantage to 17-12. Ardsley responded with a pair of points, but would get no closer as a trio of Panther miscues gave Owego a 20-14 cushion. The Indians increased their advantage to 23-15 and Ardsley could get no closer than six points.

Owego opened the third set with three quick points, Ardsley cut the gap to two twice, but with a 12-9 led in hand, the Indians went on a 5-0 run to take control of the set. The Panthers trimmed the lead to 18-13, then Owego scored seven of the final nine points to end the match.

The Indians will look at fine-tuning a couple areas before heading to Glens Falls for Saturday's morning pool play round.

"I think just continuing with some hitting work, making sure we're not making as many errors swinging as we did tonight," Race said. "I thought defensively we actually did a really good job today, which that has been our struggle. So, I think maybe just keep trying to put those pieces together, but I definitely look at some attacking stuff, just to clean it up a little bit, but I think just continuing what we are doing and we'll be alright."