Stockaders finish off H-L in 4

OLD FORT – Erin Reed wanted to see her Old Fort team play it out.The Stockaders never trailed in Set 4, but Hopewell-Loudon was right there with them.Multiple times H-L tied the score, but Reed let her team figure it out themselves.Old Fort was the beneficiary of consecutive errors by the Chieftains at the end and topped H-L 25-17, 25-12, 16-25, 25-23 in Sandusky Bay Conference River Division action Monday."We needed to come back out," said Reed of the approach to the fourth set. "OK. They took the third set. We had a down set. We have to come out and do your 25-12 again. You can't do 25-23. We always talk about urgency. We're very prepared as a team. I thought the fourth set we'd come out and do what we do."After dropping the third set, the Stockaders (7-2 overall, 5-1 SBC River) jumped out to yet another fast start in Set 4. Three straight errors by Hopewell-Loudon (5-6, 4-3) pushed OF up 7-2 early.The Chieftains continued to fight and got within 8-6 on a kill by Brynn Sendelbach. Old Fort went back up by as much as five points, but H-L rallied to tie the set at 14.Three more Chieftain errors and a kill by Cora Baker pushed the Stockaders ahead 18-14, but Hopewell-Loudon stormed back with four straight points of its own to tie it again at 18.The teams went back-and-forth until an ace by Sidney Brickner tied the set at 22. The teams exchanged kills before the back-to-back hitting errors by H-L ended the match."I thought for sure if we went to five sets, it was ours by far," H-L coach Sara Bell said. "We had the energy and momentum. If we would have decided to play the first or second set, we probably wouldn't have even needed to go five sets. We could have taken it in three, possibly four sets. We have to bring it those first two sets."Old Fort took the first two sets with ease and had a chance to sweep, but Hopewell-Loudon would not be denied. Unlike the first two sets, the Chieftains didn't face an early deficit in a set and that certainly helped their cause.The teams exchanged leads early, but six straight points by the Chieftains - which included a kill and block by Olivia Bishop and ace from Addison Siebenaller - made it 15-11.Old Fort bounced back and drew as close as 17-16, but the Chieftains finished the set strong. Alayna Jones and Siebenaller put down kills before a block by Jones forced a Stockaders timeout. Siebenaller smacked three more kills to go with an ace from Kendall Eilrich and kill by Jones to extend the match."I think the difference was our serve receive," Bell said. "We were getting around the ball better and making better passes. We were able to get better sets and use our hitters more. That allowed us to get more kills."It was all OF early. The Stockaders never trailed in the first two sets. In Set 1, Old Fort won the first five points - including three aces by Audra Miller - to jump on the Chieftains early.After H-L won two straight points, the next six points - capped on back-to-back kills by Ryen Smith - extended the advantage to 11-2. Old Fort maintained at least a five-point lead the rest of the way and opened it to double-digits at 19-9. Baker and Madi Blankenship tallied kills to put the Stockaders up early."It was urgent volleyball," Reed said. "For the past eight or nine matches, we did what people would expect. Our serve receive was very good. Even if we didn't get a kill, it wasn't an error. Those are things we're used to. I think the first two sets we did what we're expected to do."Set 2 was more of the same from Old Fort. Olivia Abdoo and Lexi Bowman each registered kills as the Stockaders raced out to an 8-2 lead early. Old Fort was able to keep Hopewell-Loudon at bay, never letting the Chieftains really settle in during the set.Instead, the Stockaders' bevy of hitters kept attacking. Smith's consecutive kills made it 14-7, Abdoo followed with a kill, and Smith added another for a 16-9 edge. A net violation, a serving error, and a four-hit error led to Bowman's kill to put Old Fort up 2-0."In the first set, it was our serve receive," Bell said. "We've been working all season and all summer on getting an early start. If we don't get an early start, we have to fight back and not let it affect the rest of the match."Jones paced Hopewell-Loudon with 13 kills to go with five blocks while Bishop tallied 10 kills and eight blocks. Eilrich added nine digs and six kills, Brickner registered 29 assists and seven digs, Sendelbach had 12 assists, Siebenaller lined seven kills, Isabelle Beidelschies nabbed 11 digs, Maddie Holcomb added six digs and Anna Daniel had four blocks for the Chieftains."I was hoping we would take that momentum into the fourth set," said Bell of her team winning the last eight points of Set 3. "Then again, they had a run. Anytime a team has a run, we have to be able to stop it and turn it around."Smith topped Old Fort with 13 kills while Bowman added 12 kills, seven digs, and three blocks. Also for the Stockaders, Abdoo contributed 20 digs and 10 kills, Blankenship tallied 25 digs and five kills, Baker finished with 10 digs and three kills, Montana Sykes had 17 digs, and Miller added 37 assists and eight digs."We got the win," Reed said. "We had some girls step up. I'm glad that happened. We have another big match (today). We have four matches this week."