Adena volleyball sweeps Wheelersburg to lock down 37th district title in program history
WAVERLY − Adena volleyball coach Laura Smith had been fully prepared for an endurance test in the Warriors' Division III district final against Wheelersburg.
Smith knew what caliber opponent the Warriors were lined up against. The Pirates are another recurring district qualifier under coach Allen Perry, and they'd faced the Warriors in a match over the summer. A win Saturday wasn't going to come easily.
Until the Warriors took the court, at least.
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"I had my mind set, this is going to go to five (sets) and it's going to come down to the wire," Smith said. "I thought, 'Oh no, we can't mentally let down,' and we talked about that in the timeout. They just stuck with it. I think it's that senior presence that we have. They're not just going to give up and they're bringing our underclassmen along with them."
Saturday morphed from an endurance test into a dead sprint for Adena. It spent three sets dismantling the Pirates in a 25-20, 25-6, 25-22 win in the Division III district finals at Waverly High School.
Adena found a groove from the first set. It pieced a pair of 6-2 runs together between early timeouts and set Wheelersburg on the backfoot. An ace by Grace Townsend, followed by kills from Katie Burns and Eva Kruger layered on pressure. Burns ended the match with eight kills, including one that sealed Adena's win in the first set.
Set 2 didn't slow the Warriors down. If anything, they sped up.
The Pirates scored just six points in the second set. They held the lead − albeit briefly − after an opening score that was soon offset by a kill from Brinlee Preston. That was the only time Adena trailed during the middle set. It ran ahead with an 18-2 run punctuated by a pair of aces by Brooke Bossert and left the Pirates sputtering.
"We were just trying stuff out in the first set, and then after that we knew what was working," Preston said. "We knew what we needed to do, and then we just went in and kept capitalizing off of what we knew worked."
A win was inevitable. Nothing kept the Warriors behind for long. Wheelersburg found a small foothold in the third set after building an initial 5-1 lead, but it didn't last. A hitting error by the Pirates forced a 9-9 tie, and the Warriors took over.
There were close calls. The Pirates forced four more ties before the end of the match, but they never reassumed the lead. The Warriors had earned the lead back, and they weren't going to fork it over. A final three-kill rally by Preston, Kruger and Day sealed the sweep and earned the Warriors their 37th district title in program history.
"I've just got a lot of confidence in these kids that they're going to give it their all," Smith said. "When you've got the seniors on the floor, it makes the difference."
This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Adena volleyball sweeps Wheelersburg to lock down district title
