High school volleyball: Avon beats Amherst in battle of ranked teams

AMHERST – Avon and Amherst gave everything you would expect from two state-ranked teams as the 11th-ranked Eagles pulled out a 26-24, 16-25, 29-27, 25-23 win over the 17th-ranked Comets to remain perfect at 10-0 overall and 8-0 in the Southwestern Conference. "Amherst played great, we had a hard time stopping both of their big hitters (Nia Hall and Laken Voss) and they picked up on our tendencies," Avon coach Julie Bendzuck said of the Comets with 21 and 16 kills respectively. "I think our experience in situations like this gave us a little bit of an edge. "I'm very happy that we are on the winning side of things, we definitely have things we need to improve on, that was a good match." Each team had the edge it needed in each of the sets won, with the Eagles watching a 18-16 lead turn into a 22-18 deficit in the first set with Hall serving for the Comets, as Delaney Kitchen picked up a pair of big kills to go with a Hall ace. As quickly as Amherst (9-2, 7-1) flipped the score, Avon did the same, closing out the set with an 8-2 run as the Comets helped with three errors. Emma Farney had an ace, Emily Gardner and Jamie Villwock each had kills along with a pair from freshman Grace Busold (11 kills) for the 26-24 win. The Comets wasted little time setting the tone in the second rolling to a 7-2 lead as Voss knocked down three of her 21 kills, and Hall had a huge block-kill for the lead that never went lower than four to knot the match at one set each. The third set saw Avon's sophomore Avery Abfall punish the Comets with 11 of her 24 kills on the night as Avon put itself in position to win, going up 23-18. But the Comets weren't quite ready to let the set get away from them. After a Voss kill, she went to the service line and put Amherst up 24-23 with a couple of aces, but the Eagles, winners of four straight SWC championships, got an Abfall kill and then three from senior Emily Gardner, who had seven in the set, to sneak out a 29-27 win. "I really wanted it (in the third set) and I kept telling Emma (Farney) to keep setting me the ball because I had confidence in myself, and I knew I could do good things," Abfall said. "With the help of Emma (58 assists) and really good (serve-receive) passing, it just came together." For Comet coach Laurie Cogan it was the little things that kept Amherst from going up 2-1. "If I could just get a couple more passes, that would be the only thing I would change about that third set," Cogan said. "We just needed a couple more passes to go our way, and they just didn't -- that's volleyball." Voss and Hall put the Comets in position to send the match to a fifth set as Voss had five kills along with four by Hall for a 21-18 lead. But after an Eagle timeout, Abfall had consecutive kills and Busold tied the match at 21-21, forcing a Comet timeout. Voss put Amherst up briefly, but a Comet hitting error and kills by Abfall and Villwock gave Avon a 24-22 advantage that went down by one on Voss' last kill, but an Abfall swing went off a Comet player then off the ceiling awkwardly for the match-clincher. "It feels amazing to play in this gym and win every single time," Gardner said. "I think we could have played a little better in the first couple sets, but we really pulled it together in that third set. That's what gave us our edge to pull this out." "Avon has won the conference four straight years, so we knew what we were up against," Cogan said. "My kids played hard, that's all you can ask them to do is come in and compete and give themselves a chance. When you look at the scores, they definitely gave themselves a chance in every set." Contact James Brady at 329-7135 or jbrady_ct@yahoo.com. Avon 3, Amherst 1 Avon &emsp;&emsp; &emsp; 26-16-29-25Amherst &emsp;&emsp; &emsp;&emsp;24-25-27-23 KILLS: (AV) Avery Abfall 24, Emily Gardner 18, Grace Busold 11; (AM) Laken Voss 21, Nia Hall 16, Delany Kitchen 10. ASSISTS: (AV) Emma Farney 58; (AM) Amaya Melendez 23, Voss 20. DIGS: (AV) Alyssa Joherl 20, Gardner 16; (AM) Lindsey McConihe 17, Nia Hall 16, Voss 15. ACES: (AV) Amanda Demmerle 4; (AM) Voss 2. BLOCK-KILL: (AV) Abfall 1; (AM) Cecily Wayner 3, Hall 2, Sydney Hooks 2, Voss 2.