District Volleyball: Avon, North Ridgeville win, will meet Wednesday in district final

AVON — The champs are ready to make a run at a repeat. Sixth-seeded Avon, the defending Division II state champion, took its first step toward a title defense with a resounding 25-7, 25-8, 25-6 district semifinal win over No. 24 Akron Firestone on Monday night. The next test for the Eagles (14-9) will come against Southwestern Conference foe North Ridgeville at Medina High School at 5 p.m. Wednesday. The Rangers won the Monday nightcap 14-25, 25-16, 25-19, 25-16 over No. 25 North Royalton. "I thought the girls looked very comfortable out there, took advantage of their opportunities and handled this team tonight," Avon coach Kara Stergiou said. "We just wanted to take advantage of every point to help get us ready for the next game." There was little doubt that Avon would advance after rolling out to a 19-4 lead in a first set that saw Lucy Lee, Clare Freaney, Aria Barbera, Julia Majerus, Peyton Reinart and Addy Smith register multiple kills. Reinart and Smith each had eight kills, while Freaney added five. Maryn Maxey led the way at the service line with six aces. The Falcons did have brief leads early in the second set on Aliza Blair's second block-kill of the match and a few Eagles hitting errors, but Avon took control with Janelle Antrum serving, taking a 10-4 lead on a pair of Freaney kills, a tip-kill by Majerus and an ace. Reinart and Smith led the attack in the final set with five kills each, while the service game kept producing aces with five more as a team. "(North Ridgeville) is definitely going to be a good matchup," Stergiou said. "Both times that we played them it was a good game. I'd like to see us go out there and show some improvement." The Eagles won in five sets both times. The night started weirdly for the 18th-seeded Rangers, who were called for an illegal uniform and trailed 1-0 before the first serve was made. North Ridgeville seemed rattled and went on to lose the first set 25-14, but after that the Rangers (10-13) pulled everything together to roll off wins in three straight sets. After evening the match with a 25-16 second-set win, Ridgeville senior Macie Miller took control of the third to give the Rangers momentum with three straight aces and five of her team-high 16 kills. Two kills and two aces came after the Bears (3-19) had come back to grab a 17-16 lead, as North Ridgeville scored six straight points for the cushion it needed to take the lead in the match. "Macie is an incredible player, when she goes, we go," Rangers coach Bob Knska said. "Tonight she was having a really nice night, I'm proud of her and proud of the team. Everyone kind of rallies around her." Miller provided the early fourth-set spark for Ridgeville with kills on the first three points as the Rangers opened a 16-8 lead with Riley Marlow getting two kills along with aces from Olivia O'Shea and Charlotte Verlei to help close out the match. Contact James Brady at jbrady_ct@yahoo.com. Avon 3, Firestone 0 Firestone&emsp;7&emsp;8&emsp;6 Avon&emsp;25&emsp;25&emsp;25 North Ridgeville 3, North Royalton 1 North Royalton&emsp;25&emsp;16&emsp;19&emsp;16 North Ridgeville&emsp;16&emsp;25&emsp;25&emsp;25