High school volleyball: Lorain sweeps Maple Heights in battle for first in Lake Erie League

LORAIN — Lorain faced a test and aced it Tuesday night. The Titans played Maple Heights in a showdown of first-pace teams in the Lake Erie League and Lorain's service game kept the Mustangs off balance all night, recording a season-high 20 aces in a 25-14, 25-21, 25-18 sweep. The victory moved the Titans to 7-7 overall and 4-1 in the LEL, one game clear of Maple Heights (5-9, 3-2) and Bedford. Lorain will be at Bedford on Thursday. "We didn't know we were gonna serve like that. We just wanted to keep our momentum up. We haven't beat (the Mustangs) in a couple of years," senior Christin Castro said. "Our goal was to just try to shut down their whole team and get the win." The Titans played side-out volleyball to start the night until Kenya Simpson started serving tied at 7 after a Mustangs service error. Simpson rattled off six points, with five of them coming on aces. She finished the match with nine aces. "I wasn't surprised about the aces. I know it's been in them the whole time," Lorain coach Capreece Irby said. "It was kind of roller-coaster serving through the year. You could see it here and there. We are really starting to put it all together right now." After the Simpson run, Shaiann Brown, Neveah Edwards and Ariyah Bivins added to the ace total to finish out the first set. The Mustangs pulled together in a serve-receive second game and it showed on the scoreboard, as neither team held more than a three-point lead. Maple Heights held a 21-20 lead after a Chloe Cogburn kill, but Simpson gave the serve back to the Titans with a block-kill and Bivins rattled off the final four points on a Castro kill, a pair of aces and an overpass kill by Brown to go up 2-0. Maple Heights jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in Set 3, but Lorain battled back, trailing 11-10 before a block-kill by Ci'Ana Armelin gave the serve to Brown, who put the Titans in front for good with a five-point run that featured a pair of Mustang miscues, two Armelin kills and a Jaleah Wright kill. Edwards and Bivins picked up the final two aces down the stretch. "Our energy was really up there, watching the freshmen and JV sweep their matches," Simpson said. "We had a rough week but were here with high energy and needed to get this win. We want to be able to carry this over and go beat Bedford on Thursday." "If I could describe our team with one word, it's proud," Irby said. "We had some adversity early in the season. It didn't start out as planned, but we have a great group of leaders and we are trying to accomplish something to make this season memorable." Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or jbrady_ct@yahoo.com. Lorain 25-25-25, Maple Heights 14-21-18 KILLS: (M) Teliah Golliday 8, Chloe Cogburn 5; (L) Christin Castro 7, Kenya Simpson 7, Jaleah Wright 4 ASSISTS: (L) Neveah Edwards 13, Castro 4 ACES: (M) Cheyenne Mickey 2; (L) Simpson 9, Ariyah Bivins 5, Edwards 4 BLOCK-KILLS: (M) Cogburn 2, Golliday 2; (L) Ci'Ana Armelin 4, Shaiann Brown 2