High school volleyball: Olmsted Falls rattles Amherst in battle of unbeatens, hands Comets their first loss

OLMSTED FALLS — In what was one of the most highly anticipated volleyball games in the area this season, Amherst knew the task at hand when it traveled to Olmsted Falls on Thursday with both teams undefeated and sitting atop the Southwestern Conference. It's a gym coach Felicia Sanchez said is a hard one to play in with a major home-court advantage thanks to the Bulldog faithful, and not to mention Olmsted Falls is loaded with talent, experience and ranks right up there with Amherst as one of the top teams in Northeast Ohio. Unfortunately for the Comets, the atmosphere and the Bulldogs' big, aggressive play rattled them a bit. The result was their first loss of the season, 25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 25-22, and conceding sole possession of first place in the SWC to Olmsted Falls (11-0, 5-0). "It's the pressure of playing in this facility, and then hats off to Olmsted Falls. They played a clean game," Sanchez said. "We were making a lot of errors — a lot of hitting errors, a lot of defensive errors, a lot of communication errors — and they played solid, almost like they played clean and waited for us to mess up." The communication errors, in particular, shook up the Comets to what essentially was a point of no return. They got frazzled and had to play defensively most of the game, while Olmsted Falls simply ran its offense and let the game unfold. The Bulldogs started the game with an ace from Addie Odon, which was a sign of things to come. The Bulldogs totaled 13 aces over four sets, forcing Amherst (9-1, 4-1) into uncharacteristically sloppy passing and serve receive. The Comets stole the second set 25-23 and started the third on a 7-1 serving run, but the louder the gym got, the more out of sync Amherst looked. "I think we just played a bit rattled as a team," Amherst senior Nia Hall said. "Sometimes we're focused on the other team's game and we have to focus on ours." Hall was the bright spot for Amherst, leading both teams with 29 kills and taking on much of the offensive responsibility as the game progressed. Sanchez said it became clear Olmsted Falls' game plan was to go at Hall no matter where she was on the court, and the senior did all she could to keep the Comets in the game. "I know a lot of people look up to me … so I feel like it's my job to carry everyone," Hall said. Cecily Waynar added 17 kills for Amherst, then the stats dropped off as only a handful of players had one or two kills beyond that. Ava Haddix had 45 assists. For Olmsted Falls, Kylee Urban nearly matched Hall with 24 kills and added 29 assists, while Alexandria Palmer had 21 kills. Where Amherst turned mostly to its two big hitters, the Bulldogs were able to spread the wealth and more strategically place the ball — the advantage of playing on the offensive and controlling the tempo. "I feel like sometimes we were on and off and that's when they run points on us," Hall said. "As long as we stay aggressive consistently I think everything will come out how it's supposed to." The Comets have a quick turnaround and another huge test when they travel to Sylvania on Saturday to face Northview (5-1), and Sanchez will be looking to see how well her team bounces back from a disappointing loss. The Comets said before the season started they believed loss and adversity would only make them better and were looking forward to the challenge — it's just come a bit earlier than they expected. "What does Amherst pride itself on? Defense. And we didn't do well with that tonight," Sanchez said. "We played not to lose instead of playing to win." Contact Marissa McNees at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com and follow her on Twitter @MarissaNM.