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IAC VOLLEYBALL: TIOGA TURNS BACK S-VE (2021-10-20)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Valley Sports Report
SPENCER - Tioga kept its hopes of an IAC South Small School volleyball title alive with a 3-0 victory over S-VE here Wednesday evening, but the Panthers gave the visitors a battle on Senior Night.

The Tigers fought off a scrappy Panther squad, 25-21 and 25-20, in the first two games, then controlled the majority of the third set for a 25-15 win.

Tioga coach Des Ford was impressed with Spencer's effort.

"They played very well, very fluent offense I thought," she said.

"I'm very proud of my girls," S-VE coach Sarah Pritchard said. "Tioga is a great team all the way around and the first two sets, really keeping up with them felt good.

"We had some serve receive and some defensive errors. I think that's where we struggled a little bit tonight, but overall I'm really proud of my girls."

Although she acknowledged getting the victory was important, Ford also stressed the need to improve in several areas as the postseason nears.

There's a lot of things to work on, a lot," she said. "We've got to try and figure it out. We don't have much time and this isn't the time of the season you want to have that happen."

Tioga jumped out to a 4-1 led in the first game, but down, 5-2, S-VE fought back to tie the game at five. The Tigers surged back ahead, but the Panthers again rallied to tie.

The teams were last deadlocked at 14, but Tioga went on a 5-point run to make it a 19-14 contest. The Panthers gave it one last push, closing the gap to 21-19, but the Tigers scored four of the final six points to pick up the win.

The second set remained closer in the early stage until a 5-point surge gave Tioga a 15-8 advantage. The Panthers continued to battle and despite trailing by seven on two more occasions, made a late run to trim the margin down to 21-19. The Tigers scored four of the final five points to go ahead two sets to one.

The Tigers' Julia Bellis served the first five points of the third game, but S-VE still refused to go away, remaining within three points five times, the last at 15-12.

The Tigers would work a 19-15 lead before scoring the final six points of the evening.

"I was very impressed with Spencer," Ford said. "I knew they'd be a different team tonight. She didn't have all her team the first round, but they just ran a nice, smooth offense, but we did not run a smooth offense at all. We were more of a defensive team."

Tioga has some strong hitters and blockers at the net, and the net was one area where the Panthers needed to perform well to stay in the match.

"They're a strong hitting team and I thought we were a strong hitting team tonight," Pritchard said, "so like I said, the defensive areas I think are what was that edge that kept us a few points down."

With the victory, the Tigers moved back into a tie with Candor in the loss column atop the division as both teams have suffered just one loss apiece after splitting their season series. S-VE slipped to 7-8 on the season.

Molly Bombard contributed a double-double with 13 digs, 12 assists, five points and a kill for the Tigers while Bellis served 18 points, three of them aces, and added four kills and seven digs. Austyn Vance scored 10 points, including five aces, and had three digs; Nina Spano chipped in with six kills and a block; Mariah Nichols posted three kills, three blocks and two digs; Reese Howey chalked up three points, one ace, four kills, two blocks and six digs; Lily Mesler had seven digs and four assists; and Kyra Bailey added four points, one ace and six digs.

For S-VE, Marah Cooper registered 10 digs, five kills and four aces; Sophia Dutra had four kills, two blocks and one ace; Sydney Myrick had one dig, Lauren Slofkosky pitched in with two assists, a kill and a dig; Hailey Thigpen recorded a kill and a block; Ajsa Zakova chipped in with 12 assists, eight digs and one kill; and CC Churey tacked on six digs, two kills and two aces.

Tioga travels to Waverly Saturday morning, and Newark Valley Monday, while S-VE visits Candor Monday to close out the regular season.

JV: Tioga won, 2-1, to improve to 13-0. The scores were 23-25, 25-10 and 25-17.

Layni Whitmore had 10 points, one kill and four digs for Tioga; Emily Bidwell added 10 points, two kills, four digs and a block; Meg Vance posted 13 kills and one point; Joslyn Maciak tacked on six points, four kills, seven assists and three digs; and RaeAnne Feeko contributed 12 assists, four points and two digs.

Faith Brenchley recorded nine digs, five assists and three aces for S-VE. Makana Diboun had seven digs, two assists, a kill and an ace; Jackie Brown added six digs; and Lily Doolittle had three kills, a block, an ace and a dig.

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IN PHOTO 1: Tioga's Megan Shumway. ... PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.

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