Girls volleyball: Firelands falls to talented Bay team in season opener

HENRIETTA TWP. — Firelands was unable to get its season started the way it wanted to in a loss to Bay in straight sets Tuesday. The Rockets started fast, forcing Firelands coach Mason Cooley to call an early timeout with his team trailing 12-6 in the opening set. The break helped arrest the slide a bit as Firelands rattled off a couple of quick points, but Bay took back command of the set and ended up winning 25-18. Bay really took control of the match in the second set, as senior hitter and Findlay commit Olivia Miller began to exert her will with nine kills in the set, which Bay won 25-10. "She's one of the top players on Bay's team," Cooley said. "She was very dominant tonight and it just shows us some of our weaknesses that we have to work on." The third set appeared to be heading toward a similar score to the second, but Firelands was able to put together a late run and put some pressure on Bay before losing 25-20. "I thought we did a very nice job competing," Cooley said. "In the past, we'd make a couple of mistakes and then we'd get down on ourselves. I think for our first game, we did a very nice job of fighting back, fighting through all three sets." One thing that consistently hurt Firelands, especially in the final two sets, was an inability to consistently return serves. The Rockets recorded nine aces, with the majority of those coming in the final two sets, and the aces were key to a number of long runs that kept the Falcons on the ropes. While a straight set loss is certainly a tough way to start the season, it did accomplish one goal Cooley has for his team. "We're trying to get a tougher non-conference schedule," he said. "I think this will help us out in the long run. It shows us a few of the things that we still need to work on. But Bay's a very good team and I was happy with how we handled it." In particular, Cooley was pleased with the play of his two setters, Lexi Schrader and Josie Kirby, who each reached double digits in assists and were a key part of what offense the Falcons managed. "Both our setters do a very nice job of both leading the team and running our offense," Cooley said. "We run everything we do through both those setters and they've both done a very nice job taking charge of that." After dropping only three sets on the way to an undefeated conference season a year ago, testing themselves out of conference will be key for the Falcons if they want to better last year's second-round playoff loss. Bay 3, Firelands 0 Bay 25-25-25 Firelands 18-10-20 KILLS: B: Lisa Gilmore 4, Rachel Kraft 2, Olivia Miller 22, Fiona Walden 1, Olivia Stehlik 4, Andy Naughton 8; F: Layla McGuire 3, Claire Hasley 5, Regan Viock 1, Josie Kirby 8, Madison Howard 1, Everleigh Robinson 5, Micah Lee 4. ASSISTS: B: Payton Masterson 1, Amelia Vecchio 31, Camille Costin 1, Nina Peet 1; F: Lexi Schrader 11, Kirby 10. ACES: B: Masterson 2, Vecchio 1, Miller 3, Stehlik 1, Peet 2; F: Stella Frederick 1, McGuire 2, Kirby 1. BLOCK-KILLS: B: Walden 1, Stehlik 1; F: Hasley 1, Howard 2.