High school volleyball: Elyria serves up a needed win over rival Lorain

ELYRIA — Paige Pileski had to feel her team "aced" its match Monday against its biggest rival. Pileski took over Elyria High's volleyball program this year only to find the wins hard to come by, but behind 26 aces, the Pioneers beat Lorain 25-7, 25-12, 26-28, 25-16. "Our focus this last week in practice was serving," Pileski said. "Get your serves in and the rest will fall into place." It certainly did. Elyria scored the first six points of the night and roared out to a 15-2 advantage in the first set. Sophomore libero Cameron Kelley and junior Kiera Schibley each had three aces with sophomore Arabella Sauer (two) and junior Jenae Manuel coming up with the others. Game 2 was pretty much the same, with the Pioneers jumping in front 9-2 and increasing it to 22-8 at one point. Manuel had five aces with three coming in a row. Palos added two and Sauer and Schibley one each. For the match, Manuel led with seven, while Schibley had six. Elyria's student cheering section was certainly a factor. They were jumping up and down, cheering every Pioneer point. It definitely had an effect on the Titans, especially during the first two sets. The Pioneers (2-8) rolled up nine aces in each of the first two games to win easily. "They're great," Pileski said of the student fans. "This is fun. I've never coached in anything like that. It definitely fuels our players. It feels really great especially in an environment like this — loud and crazy and intense. Our focus was to stay focused on the game and not worrying about everything around us." "Our student section definitely helped us a lot," Morgan Palos said. "They kept us up when we got down. Our mindset going into this game was to be calm. We knew who we were facing — it's our rival. We just had to be calm and finish the game." Palos did a little bit of everything but her biggest asset was her setting. She piled up 26 assists, getting the ball to Elyria's prime hitters most of the night. Schibley benefited the most with 11 kills while Sauer had nine. If the other side of the floor looked clear, Palos would sweep it over the net herself and ended with seven kills. She also contributed to the ace total with two, including the match-clinching point in the fourth set. "That's what we've been focusing on in practice," Palos said. "Getting our serves over and being consistent." "There's not enough words I can say about her," Pileski said of Palos. "She's an athlete. She's your go-getter. She's the kid you want on the floor in tense games like this. She does it all and she's competitive." "To be honest, we've never played in a gym this rowdy and this loud," Lorain coach Capreece Irby said. "We love it. I'm glad they got that experience because we're true competitors. I think we got the nerves out of our system and we started to play our game a little bit. "I don't think we serve-received well. I think that was one of our biggest issues but once we found some momentum, we started to play our game and started to do a little better." Lorain (0-8) did just that. In the third set, the Titans cut down on the errors and hit the ball much better at the net. Kenya Simpson had eight of her team-high nine kills during the second set. The Titans built a comfortable 21-15 lead and managed to hold off a furious rally to win 28-26. "They've been talking about this match since the beginning of the season," Irby said. "They wanted this match really bad. It's kind of a little rivalry between the two so the stakes are high. I said, 'Look, this is your one chance'. They looked a little more comfortable after that." "That's been our emphasis," Pileski said. "We've kind of dug ourselves a hole in a lot of these games. This was a must-win for us to start our long week." Elyria has conference games at Midview and Berea-Midpark this week before hosting its annual quad Saturday. Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7235 or timothygeb@msn.com. Elyria 25-25-26-25, Lorain 7-12-28-16 KILLS: (L) Kenya Simpson 9; (E) Kiera Schibley 11BLOCK KILLS: (L) Simpson 2; (E) Kennedy Smith, Maia Lunn 2ACES: (L) Ava Miller 5; (E) Jenae Manuel 7, Schibley 6ASSISTS: (E) Morgan Palos 26DIGS: (E) Schibley, Arabella Sauer 9