Elyria loses to Kenston in title match of Rocky River volleyball Invitational
Steve Byrne | The Chronicle-Telegram
ROCKY RIVER — Seedings at the Rocky River Invitational usually don’t mean a whole lot. All that’s taken into account is records. Strength of schedule means nothing.
Kenston’s victory over Elyria made the tournament’s organizers look good. Kenston — a Division II school playing a schedule filled mostly with Division II and Division III schools — lived up to its top billing by taking a two-game victory over No. 3 seed Elyria — a Division I team with a primarily big-school schedule — in the championship match.
The Bombers beat Elyria 27-25 and 28-26 in a rematch of last year’s tournament final. Kenston’s victory ended the Pioneers’ three-year run of Rocky River Invitational titles. Kenston is now 10-0.
Unforced errors were the culprit for Elyria (8-3). The Pioneers had a 16-8 disadvantage in that department. Pioneers coach Jodie Johnson blamed serve receiving for most of the miscues.
“Errors were definitely a factor, especially serve receiving errors,” she said. “These (Kenston) girls have aggressive top-spin serves. We have to work on receiving serves like that. We’re used to seeing serves low to the net.
“When that (serve receiving) breaks down, it’s hard to regroup. We competed, but mistakes hurt us. And they were game-changing mistakes.”
It was some consolation that Elyria’s Amanda Medvetz was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player for the second year in a row. The Pioneers’ outside hitter had 21 kills in six tournament games.
“We played very well,” Medvetz said. “We never gave up, even at game point. We tried our best. That’s all you can do. Kenston was the better team today.”
Kristen Boros, who had six kills against the Bombers, was also named to the all-tournament team from Elyria.
Kenston ran off six straight points in Game 1 to go ahead 19-16. The Pioneers fought back to take 24-23 and 25-24 leads, but Kenston scored the final three points to pull it out. Claire Randall’s ace was the winning point.
A kill by Medvetz and kill blocks by Jacqui Hawes and Jazmyn Corlew gave Elyria a 26-25 lead in Game 2. Again the Bombers scored the final three points to win it.
A bad serve, a kill by Randall and a net ball gave Kenston the championship.
Elyria reached the title match with victories over Avon Lake, 25-13, 29-27, and Rocky River, 25-17, 25-21.
Medvetz had 10 kills and 10 digs and Boros had eight kills and 12 digs against Avon Lake (6-5). Bridgett Jones had six kills and three kill blocks.
Avon Lake, which lost Game 2 to Elyria on a net violation, was led by Bri Heschel and Kaity Mullen with five kills each and Carly Dalgleish with 12 digs.
Hawes served nine straight points with two aces in Game 1 against second-seeded Rocky River (8-2). Jones led the Pioneers with nine kills.
Rocky River beat Avon (6-5) in the first round behind nine kills by sophomore Maeve Kessler and four kill blocks by her older sister, Maureen. Sara Ladegaard and Christina Herbst led Avon in that match with eight and seven kills, respectively.
All-tournament team
Emily Whitsamen, Medina; Maureen Kessler, Rocky River; Kristen Boros, Elyria; Luren Landsman, Kenston; Jen Braun, Kenston; Megan Wendel, Kenston.
MVP — Amanda Medvetz, Elyria.
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Filed by Steve Byrne | The Chronicle-Telegram September 14th, 2008 in Sports. Popularity: 5% |
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