Edwardsburg sweeps Dowagiac in volleyball
Published 10:02 pm Thursday, October 11, 2012
Edwardsburg’s Alexis Blake records one of her four kills in the Eddies’ 3-0 win over Dowagiac Thursday. (Leader photo/SCOTT NOVAK)
Visiting Edwardsburg went to a quick offense against Dowagiac and it paid off in a 3-0 Wolverine Conference West Division victory Thursday.
The Eddies defeated the Chieftains 25-12, 25-14 and 25-12.
Edwardsburg, according to first-year coach Chrissy Breisch, was able to take advantage of a lot of free balls from Dowagiac.
The results was strong net play from Madison Hatkevich, MacKenzie Meyers and Alexis Blake, who combined for 12 kills. They were set up by Payton Szlanfucht, who finished with 25 assists.
When Dowagiac did go on the offensive, the Eddies were there to turn the ball back. Blake led Edwardsburg with four blocks.
The second set was the most competitive with the Chieftains rallying to tie things up at 6-6.
The Eddies went on a tear, scoring 11 of the next 15 points to open up a 17-10 advantage. Dowagiac never recovered.
The third set was tied briefly at 1-1, but another run by Edwardsburg made it 16-8 in a blink of an eye.
“We were definitely working on a fast offense tonight,” Breisch said. “We knew we would be getting a lot of free balls. We specifically practiced a ball coming over the next and slamming it back down yesterday. We knew we would see a lot of over passes and I thought we did that pretty well tonight.”
Hollie Olson serves for Dowagiac against the Eddies in their Wolverine Conference West Division match. (Leader photo/SCOTT NOVAK)
Dowagiac coach Sara Lawrence, who honored her seniors, was frustrated with how the season has gone and Thursday’s match wasn’t much different.
The Chieftains, already without one of its top players in Rachel Bailey (knee), was without the serves of outside hitter Amanda Badner (shoulder).
“We don’t play up,” Lawrence said. “We get down all the time. We are three players down now. Hollie’s hurt her shoulder. I don’t know how she’s doing right now, but I know she’s hurting. We are pretty much the walking wounded.”
Edwardsburg d. Dowagiac 3-0
Edwardsburg statistics
Kills
Madison Hatkevich 4
MacKenzie Meyers 4
Alexis Blake 4
Blocks
Blake 4
Digs
Lindsay Nunez 15
Bri Nemeth 10
Aces
Nunez 5
Blake 4
Assists
Payton Szlanfucht 25
Dowagiac statistics
Aces
Brittany Williams
Serving
Hollie Olson
Katie Dantone
