VOLLEYBALL: Pioneer avenges loss with sweep vs. Caston

Aug. 25—FULTON — After falling to Caston in the county championship match, the Pioneer volleyball team had revenge on its mind Thursday night.

The Class 2A No. 8 Panthers recorded a sweep of the Comets, 25-15, 25-18, 25-13, in front of a packed gym.

"I think that Caston may have awoke a sleeping giant," Pioneer senior Brooklyn Borges said. "I don't know, I just know that we play better when we're pumped up. If someone gets us mad we're going to play better. We were playing as a team tonight."

It was a stark contrast to the match 12 days earlier, when Caston won 25-22, 23-25, 15-9 to end Pioneer's eight-year consecutive run as county champs.

Pioneer coach Rod Nies said his team had a much sharper performance Thursday night.

"One of the things we really focused on and I didn't show the girls this until yesterday but they scored 63 points, so they scored 25 points in the first set, they had 23 in the second and 15 in the third," Nies said. "They had 63 points, we had 43 errors, 26 of them were hitting errors. We had seven missed serves, we had seven net violations and one girl had five of them. Then we got aced three times. We played horrible. My girls were not focused, they were ready, they won it, they kicked our rear. She's got a nice team."

The Comets (8-2, 1-1 HNAC) never really got going Thursday night, although Macee Hinderlider had a nice match hitting the ball from all over the court.

"All the credit goes to Pioneer. They came in and we were on our heels pretty much all night," Caston coach Gina Hierlmeier said. "I didn't feel like we serve received well, I didn't feel like we were really offensively consistent and that allowed them to do pretty much what they wanted to do. They came in and played a great match this evening.

"[Hinderlider] has always been consistent for us. She grew quite a bit as a player last year and was consistent for us tonight. But I really feel like Isabel Scales, I moved her around, she did some great things at the net for us. We don't really focus on one player. We try to get people in positions to make sure they're successful in those positions when we need them to be. Macee was consistent for us tonight at least hitting the ball but I felt like the other people stepped up in moments as well."

Mackenzie-Ruth Rogers had a big night for the Panthers (6-3, 2-0 HNAC) with a triple-double of 13 kills, 13 assists, 11 digs, two blocks and two aces. Keirsten Nies had 12 assists, seven digs and five kills. Blair Grigsby collected eight assists, six kills and four digs. Borges contributed seven kills, eight digs and two blocks. Kylie Attinger added two kills and a block. Adeline Cripe led the defense with 23 digs and Liz Rance added 14 digs.

"The girls were ready tonight, they were focused," Nies said. "We knew who their hammers were and who we had to slow down. And we did, we did a nice job I felt like.

"Caston's got a heck of a nice team. They've got some great athletes, a couple of those girls have played club for me for quite a few years. The [Alexa] Finke girl went up to Empowered and played for my nephew. They've got some athletes. Scales and [Addison] Zimpleman, they're like Hailey Cripe, they're athletes and they've got a drive that they're never going to give up. She's got a nice team. They have a shot."

All is not lost for the Comets, as they generally greatly improve throughout the season considering most of the players don't play much volleyball in the summer.

"We walked in and I basically just said, 'hey, we got beat tonight but that's not the determining factor of our season. There's a lot of volleyball left to play, there's a lot of conference volleyball left to play,'" Hierlmeier said. "It's always been our message by the end of the season this year we want to be able to go over to Southwood and win a sectional. Matches like this help us do that. I appreciate the fact that we play teams that make us better volleyball players and Pioneer does that."

The win was particularly big for Borges, who attended Caston before she transferred to Pioneer entering the ninth grade. She proceeded to help the Panthers win three state championships in the same school year her freshman year.

She hit a road block in her athletic career when she suffered a torn ACL and meniscus playing in the county basketball tournament last Nov. 30.

Her injury was bad enough that she had to have surgeries on both knees as doctors used her healthy left knee to help repair her injured right knee.

"They took my patella tendon and part of my bone and then put it to repair my ACL in my other leg," she said. "I was in bed for a week all week and I could not move for a whole week. It was awful."

Not all torn ACLs are the same.

"It's all different," Borges said. "I know some other girls they were up and walking a week after. I was in bed, I was like, 'what the heck, why am I in bed? Why can't I do anything?'"

She added she knew it was bad soon after she fell to the court at the Berry Bowl on Nov. 30.

"My heart dropped. I knew, Ashlynn Brooke knew," she said.

Now she's trying to find the aggressive attack at the net that she had before her injury.

"I'm doing a lot better I would say but I'm still not mentally there," she said. "When those plays come up close to the net I'm still a little bit nervous. But I would say it's improved my back row game a lot being out in the front row in practice especially. But I feel like all-around I've been a better player just because of my injury I've been able to focus on more on my all-around game.

"My goal is in the next two weeks to be back. I think it's just mentally — Rod says I'm physically there — it's just I'm in my head. I'm just too worried about getting hurt. But everyone is. Who isn't?"

Nies said Borges is showing good progress.

"Brooklyn just keeps getting better every time she steps on the court. Her lateral movement is looking much better," he said. "She's a gamer as well. I'm looking forward to her continuing to get better as the season goes."

Nies is looking for Borges to continue to improve her hitting as the season goes on. Same for setters Rogers, Grigsby and Kiersten Nies, who don't hit during the club season but do for the high school season.

Like the Comets, the Panthers are hoping to peak at the end of the season.

"We want to win a state championship," Borges said.

Borges has also made her college choice as she has committed to NAIA Ohio Christian University. She credited former Pioneer teammate Madison Blickenstaff for her help.

"Madison Blickenstaff had them reach out to me because when you tear your ACL and you don't have any film from your junior year which for volleyball is a big recruiting time. If you don't have any film it's like we don't know who you are," she said. "School ball doesn't really show how good you are. Madison Blickenstaff, she put in a word for me at Ohio Christian and basically I went down there, I played good but I didn't play that good. But they saw potential in me and I think the Lord's telling me to go that way and I'm really happy about it."