Volleyball: Christian Community cruises past Horizon Science

GRAFTON — Christian Community got back to even. The Warriors improved to 2-2 on the season Monday night with a dominant straight-set victory over Horizon Science, 25-3, 25-3, 25-7. It was the second win in the last three games for Christian Community. "I think we're doing pretty good," said coach Maddie Markovich. "A lot of the things I'm teaching the girls are about being mentally tough, and we can only control how good we are." The Warriors were very good Monday night, holding the Dragons to single-digit point totals in all three sets. They were able to put in some of their younger players for the final set. For Markovich, the hardest thing about Monday's game was making sure her players stayed focused and kept their foot on the gas throughout its entirety. "You can't let your focus depend on how well or how bad you're doing," Markovich said. "What I told them today was to focus on every ball, not even every play. I told them 'when you contact the ball, focus on that contact, and then focus on the next one.'" The Warriors' biggest asset was their serving, as they totaled 33 aces across the three sets, with 15 coming from senior Reagan Reader, who did not even serve in the third set. Given the talent advantage Christian Community had over Horizon, all it needed to do for most of the night was get its serves in play and it was likely to win the point. Serving is one of Markovich's biggest focuses as a coach, and Monday provided a fantastic opportunity for the Warriors to sharpen their skills. "If we are neck-and-neck with a team that we should be blowing out of the water, it's because we have a lot of service errors," Markovich said. "We serve a million times as volleyball players, we shouldn't be missing time and time again." Service errors did creep into the Warriors' game a bit in the third set, when they had six, resulting in the Dragons scoring more points than they had in the first two sets combined. One other thing that Markovich took the opportunity to have her team focus on was playing out of the typical bump-set-spike structure, which they do not often get an opportunity to do. "When you play a team that you're a bit more fast-paced than, it's hard to stay in your rhythm," Markovich said. "You can take a lot from a game where there's a lot of out-of-system balls, because we don't practice a lot of those. When the girls are able to get acclimated to different scenarios, it's good for them." Christian Community will try to keep the momentum going today against Westside Christian. Christian Community 25-25-25, Horizon Science 3-3-7 KILLS: HS: None; CC: Julia Restivo 1, Felicity Kawczak 1, Savanna Dunlap 4, Reagan Reader 1. DIGS: HS: Tatiana Weekly 1, Leah Adams 2; CC: None. ASSISTS: HS: None; CC: Frankie Tinter 1, Gili Kawczak 5. ACES: HS: Kaylen McFarland 1; CC: Tinter 3, Jessica Goerlich 1, Restivo 6, Joey Arnold 1, Gili Kawczak 7, Reader 15. BLOCK-KILLS: HS: None; CC: Dunlap 1.