H.S. Volleyball: Avon rallies to beat Olmsted Falls, stay perfect

OLMSTED TWP. — The road to the Southwestern Conference volleyball championship may go through Avon, but it was a bumpy ride through Olmsted Falls on Thursday. After winning the opening set, Avon saw the Bulldogs win the next two before a spectacular defensive effort by Bethany Sherwood set up a fifth set, allowing the Eagles to pull out a 25-16, 19-25, 24-26, 25-16, 15-11 win. The Eagles, ranked No. 3 in the most recent Division II coaches' poll, stayed perfect this year at 13-0 overall and 9-0 in the SWC. Falls, ranked No. 6 in the same poll, drops to 9-3, 7-2 with both losses coming to Avon. "We knew coming in this was going to be a very tough match, the second round is always the toughest round," said Eagles senior Londyn Stone, who finished with 15 kills, three aces and 24 digs. "We knew they were going to give us their best." Avon got off to a great start, but Olmsted Falls bounced back to double the number of sets lost by the Eagles this year by winning the next two. Maya Awad and Grace Largent led the way for the Bulldogs as Awad had five of her 11 kills and a pair of block-kills, while Largent added six of her team-high 12 to put the Eagles on the ropes for the first time this season. That's when Avon's Sherwood put together one of the best individual defensive performances possible with an incredible five solo blocks in the fourth set as she finished the night with nine. The Eagles got off to a quick start at 6-1 in the fourth set with a pair of Sherwood blocks, two Bulldogs hitting errors, a kill from Kaitlyn Pojman and an ace from Caroline Busold. Avon kept that lead throughout the set thanks to a pair of kills from Stone, single kills by Lily Hamilton and Sherwood and eight more unforced hitting errors by the Bulldogs. Hamilton served out the final four points with Sherwood coming up with two more solo blocks, including the set-winner to set up the race to 15 in the fifth set. "Both teams blocking was insane in this game," said Sherwood, who added 13 kills. "As a middle hitter, their blocking was in my face all night. We were setting up the block in the right spot and I was able to close and push over. It worked well on all of our parts." "Lily (Hamilton) stepped up in the huddle (after the third set) and said we've worked way too hard to lose this game," Eagles coach Kara Coffman said. "They snapped out of it and pushed through." Neither team took control in the fifth with the score sitting at 10-10 as Awad picked up a pair of kills and a block-kill to offset a pair of kills by Stone. Like the fourth set, it was Sherwood who helped close out the comeback as Avon finished on a 5-1 run with Sherwood getting three kills and her last solo block before a Pojman kill finished off the win. "We are literally a few points away, we just went toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in the state," Falls coach Brigid Radigan said. "We are not going to get better by beating bad teams and to be the best, we have to beat the best and, in our conference, Avon is the best." Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or jbrady_ct@yahoo.com. Avon 3, Olmsted Falls 2 Avon 25-19-24-25-15 Olmsted Falls 16-25-26-19-11 KILLS – (A) Londyn Stone 15, Lily Hamilton 13, Bethany Sherwood 13; (OF) Grace Largent 12, Maya Awad 11, Emily Odon 13. ASSISTS – (A) Hamilton 25, Kaitlyn Pojman 21. DIGS – (A) Ally Brediger 32, Stone 24, Pojman 15, Hamilton 11. ACES – (A) Stone 3, Hamilton 3, Caroline Busold 2, Pojman 2; (OF) Largent 2. BLOCK-KILL – (A) Sherwood 9, Pojman 3; (OF) Awad 3, Largent 2, Jesse Simon 2.