For the third time in four meetings this season, the Cassopolis volleyball team came away with a victory over Dowagiac.

The Rangers, who defeated the Chieftains in the finals of the River Valley Invitational on Saturday, beat Dowagiac 25-21, 25-21 and 25-18 Tuesday night.

“This is the third time we have played them in three days, so I think we were a little tired,” Cassopolis coach Ray Prestly said. “That’s not an excuse, but we worked on a couple little things last night and they are starting to understand that.”

Cassopolis started slowly in all three sets, but finished strong to earn the sweep.

The two teams battled back and forth in the opening set with Cassopolis opening up a 15-13 lead that forced Dowagiac to call a time out.

It appeared to be all Rangers from that point as they increased their lead to 22-17 forcing another Chieftain time out.

Dowagiac rallied to cut the Cassopolis lead to 23-21 on an ace by Emily Dodd, who was called up to the varsity to replace the injured Kassidy Binns at setter.

That would be as close as the Chieftains would get as errors helped the Rangers win the opening set.

The second set mirrored the first with a back and forth affair until Dowagiac opened up a 13-11 lead forcing Prestly to call a time out.

Dowagiac led 16-14 before Cassopolis rallied and took over outscoring the Chieftains 5-3 to close out the set.

It was tied only once in the third and final set at 4-4. The Rangers went on a tear, opening up a 14-9 lead and cruising to the 25-18 victory.

“More so than I thought,” Dowagiac coach Vince Strefling answered when asked about how much the team missed Binns. “We had to bring everything right back to the beginning, which we haven’t been working on for three weeks. It hurt us. It showed.”

 

Cassopolis d. Dowagiac 3-0

Set scores

25-21, 25-21, 25-18

 

Dowagiac statistics

Kills

Anne Ennesser 9

Amanda Badner 6

 

Digs

Badner 14

Hannah Whitaker 10

Natalie Davis 8

 

Blocks

Taylor Hulett 2

Badner 2

 

Aces

Dodd 2

 

Assists

Emily Demeter 12

Cooper 7

 

Cassopolis statistics

Kills

Rachelle Williams 10

Michelle Green 8

Marissa Waldschmidt 3

 

Digs

Tori Baker 20

Maddie Ruff 6

Green 5

Waldschmidt 5

 

Blocks

Jamie Sueseland 2

Jayne Butts 1

 

Assists

Kaylyn Forrest 24