By TIM TAYLORTioga County Sports Report
TIOGA CENTER — Defending state champion Candor fought off an upset-minded Spencer-Van Etten foe to win its third straight Section IV Class D volleyball title here Saturday.
The top-seeded Coyotes won by scores of 25-15, 25-20 and 25-22 in the first championship round meeting of Tioga County teams since Candor defeated Tioga in 2022.
Candor coach Pam Quinlan applauded the efforts of the Panthers, who came into the tournament as the No. 4 seed.
“They're a scrappy team,” she said. “They have good servers. They have some hitters that place the ball well. Just working against their defense, trying to find some spots and score some points can be tough.”
“I'm beyond proud of my team,” S-VE coach Charity Meyers said. “I feel like they didn't give up and that's something that you've worked for, for them to be mentally strong. I felt like they went after it.
Leading 3-2 in game one, Candor created some space with a 6-1 run, then pushed it to 12-5. The Panthers cut the margin to 13-9 and fell behind 16-9 before narrowing the gap to 16-12. From there, Candor started to pull away for the 10-point triumph.
“The first set, I do think they had a little adrenaline and nerves going and stuff, but they were fighting the whole time.”
The Coyotes rode the efforts of several of their state tournament veterans — Malley Heidl, Emmi Maki, Nicola Soper, Jill Teribury and Hazel Ray — but also received contributions from some of their other players to help grab the opening set win.
“There may be some big names that everybody's familiar with, but I think some of our other people coming in to serve, people coming in to play some defense, people playing some help balls, people taking some attacks that maybe don't often times get a lot of swings,” said Quinlan.
“Defensively, I thought we were maybe a little stronger than we sometimes showed in the past.”
Despite the first game setback, S-VE refused to go down without a fight.
The Panthers would fall behind, 8-2, in the early stages of game two and trailed, 16-10, before starting to chip away at the Candor lead. S-VE managed to cut the spread to three at 17-14, 19-16, 20-17 and 21-18, but just couldn’t get over that hump down the stretch.
Down, 22-18, S-VE called a timeout and attempted to regroup, but were greeted by Soper ace to the back row when play resumed and that helped Candor close out the set.
The Panthers reeled off four straight points early in game three to grab a 6-3 advantage and a Candor timeout didn’t help the Coyotes as Lauren Gillette served up six points to make it a 9-3 contest,
S-VE would work a 12-6 lead, the Coyotes would cut it to 13-11, then the Panthers would stretch it back out to 16-11. A service error would give the ball back to Candor and moments later, two big hits by Maki tied the score at 18.
The game would also be tied at 19 and 20, but the Coyotes were able to create two-point edges at 22-20, 23-21 and 24-22 before ending the match.
“We have seen them play all season and … they do a great job,” Meyers said. “They are powerhouse hitters. We really worked on our blocking. We worked on going after every ball and hitting it, and just being aggressive because if you just do free balls over, that's easy passes for them to now set up and they have their really strong hitters to attack you with. We were trying to really keep them on their toes and have them make the errors and just try to do our best on being aggressive the whole time.”
Maki had a big night for Candor, recording a triple-double with 20 kills, 14 points (3 aces) and 11 digs. Heidl dished out 26 assists, and also had seven points, five digs and one block assist. Soper registered a dozen kills to go with four points (2 aces), an assist and a dig. Ray chipped in with 12 points, four digs and two assists; Teribury chipped in with 10 points and eight digs; Val Palonco-Gil had a kill and an assist; Tracy Reynolds added two points; Montana Vorhis had two digs; Nora Young added one point and one dig; and Ava Fernando had one block assist.
Having several players with deep postseason experience should be a plus moving on.
“I think just like it's helped us through pool play and through today, and maybe even IACs, I think just having kids that have been in that situation, number one, and really liking the feeling of it, and wanting to get back. Number two, really understanding the level of play that you have to have at a consistent basis to be able to do that.
“I think coming back today in that third game, I think that was maybe a little mental boost, understanding that you can be down four or five points in a game and you just have to battle back one point at a time.”
For S-VE, Gillette chalked up eight kills, seven points, including one ace, seven digs and two blocks. Kelsea Swayze handed out 24 assists to go with nine digs, three points and two kills; Trinity Dashler had 11 kills, three digs and one point; Madison Ashby pitched in with eight digs, six points, including two aces and five kills; Amani Diboun added nine digs and two assists; Andy Wallace had seven digs, four points and one kill; and Elliana Middlebrook tacked on three kills and three digs.
“They did a great job throughout the season,” Meyers said of her team. “It's more than I could ask for out of them and I'm so proud of them.”
Candor (15-1) will host a regional match on Saturday. S-VE finishes the season at 8-7.
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IN PHOTO 1: (L-R) Candor’s Hazel Ray and Emmi Maki, and S-VE’s Kelsea Swayze. IN TOP PHOTO: The champions. … PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
