High school volleyball: Avon Lake gets big win over Amherst

AVON LAKE — Just call Avon Lake the dream killers. A year after beating Olmsted Falls late in the season to give Amherst the Southwestern Conference championship, the Shoregals flipped the script and beat the Comets 25-16, 25-23, 17-25, 25-18 to all but hand the Bulldogs the title. Amherst, 15-3 overall and 9-2 in the SWC, is two games back with three left. The Comets have a chance to stay alive, facing Falls on Thursday. Avon Lake improved to 11-5, 8-3 in the SWC. "This is like our nemesis and rivalry all in one," Shoregals coach Shana Miocinovic said. "You don't take a day off in the Southwestern Conference. This is one match that we have been wanting so bad. I don't know if it was the will to win or just trying to prove a point. The girls came out to play and play hard." Avon Lake came out in the first two sets and never gave the Comets a chance to build momentum, trailing for a total of five points, all in the first set. Cecily Waynar helped get Amherst up 5-4 early in the opening set with three of her 12 kills and the two teams played side-out volleyball until Avon Lake put together a four-point run with Rachel Meyer serving. Aubrey Kirk had a kill to go with a pair of Comets' hitting errors and an ace to put AL in front 17-12. Stephanie Smith served out the set with an ace and Izzy Loeffler kill and a pair of kills by Kirk. "We know that Amherst is an advanced team and this feels so good," said Kirk, who had a team-high 22 kills. "We knew, to win tonight, we had to take that first set." The Shoregals jumped out to a 5-1 lead on a Smith ace and kill, an Amherst hitting error and a kill by Kirk. The game had long stretches of side-out scoring until the Comets were able to tie it at 17 on a pair of Avon Lake hitting mistakes, a Sydney Alto ace and a kill by Nia Hall. Amherst couldn't find a way to slow Kirk, who had three straight kills, before two kills from Smith closed out the set. "It means so much (to beat Amherst). We've been working so hard and getting this one was a huge success for us all," said Smith, who had 17 kills. "I knew coming back that I was not going to take a loss. I wanted to beat this team so bad." in the third set, Amherst rode the hitting of Hall, who dominated from the front and back rows with eight of her match-high 29 kills, along with a pair of block-kills, as Amherst won 25-17. The Shoregals closed out the Comets with a 25-18 win in the fourth set. Meyer was not only big at the service line, but she was also near flawless running the offense with 57 assists, giving her 638 this year, which is in the top five in Ohio. "It's awesome to know that I can count on any of my hitters to put the ball down," Meyer said. "We're working really hard this year and looking forward to next year." Despite the tough loss, Comets coach Felicia Sanchez knows the season isn't over. "We all know volleyball is a game of mistakes, a game of runs and a game of momentum," Sanchez said. "There is no easier way to say it other than we made a lot of mistakes tonight. A lot of serving mistakes, a lot of hitting mistakes and a lot of blocking mistakes. "We still have a lot of things to accomplish in our season, this can't define us, but we have to learn from it. If we keep doing the same things teams expect us to do, the season will be over in October. We have to be able to showcase some of our other talents." Contact James Brady at 329-7135 or jbrady_ct@yahoo.com. Avon Lake 3, Amherst 1 Amherst 16-23-25-18 Avon Lake 25-25-17-25 KILLS: (A) Nia Hall 29, Cecily Waynar 12; (AL) Aubrey Kirk 22, Stephanie Smith 17 ACES: (A) Hall 2; (AL) Kirk 2, Smith 2 ASSISTS: (A) Ava Haddix 42; (AL) Stephanie Smith 57 DIGS: (A) Hall 15, Lindsey McConihe 14; (AL) Meyer 9, Dani MacArthur 5 BLOCK-KILLS: (A) Ava Darmos 3; (AL) Izzy Loeffler 3