SW Valley advances with sweep

CORNING — Southwest Valley held off Murray’s challenge in the first round of Class 1A Region 3 play Tuesday night with a sweep of the Lady Mustangs on the Timberwolves’ court.

Murray provided resistance to the newly-ranked (Class 1A No. 15) Timberwolves in two of the three sets, falling by scores of 25-22, 25-12, 25-19. Southwest Valley will stay home next Monday for the quarterfinal match against Stanton, which swept Griswold in Tuesday’s opening round.

Southwest Valley head coach Lindsay Wetzel said her team will have to step up its intensity for the next round. An example was the early stretch of set three Tuesday, when Murray’s Twila Barber served the Lady Mustangs to a 6-0 lead before the Timberwolves snared the lead at 9-8.

“This group doesn’t seem to get too concerned in those situations, but I would just like to see them bring the energy level up a little,” Wetzel said. “It’s not a group that shows a lot of emotion.”

The team sang “Happy Birthday” to Jentry Schafer afterward as the team’s hitting leader observed her 18th birthday Tuesday. It took awhile for the Timberwolves’ attack to get going, but Schafer did show a nice mix of tips and hard-hit attacks to finish with a team-high 13 kills, pushing her season total to 287. Kayley Myers added nine kills to go with 13 of 15 serving and three digs.

“In the first set I would say our connection was off with our hitters,” Wetzel said. “We definitely did not play our best volleyball tonight. We missed five serves in the first set, which is uncharacteristic of our team. We will need to pick up our play in the next round for sure if we want to keep winning.”

Southwest Valley started the night with an 11-6 lead in the opening set, but couldn’t maintain the momentum as Murray fought back to within 11-10. It was tied 22-22 when the Timberwolves got a sideout and Isabelle Inman served the final two points for the 25-22 win.

The second set was a series of long service strings by the Timberwolves as Myers opened with an 8-0 run. Marah Larsen took it from 9-2 to 14-2. Then, late in the set Norah Lund served six consecutive points, including an ace, for the 25-12 victory.

“We just couldn’t serve receive in that second set,” Murray coach Jerry Shields said. “It didn’t matter what we tried, we just did not have it in that set.”

The tide turned immediately in set three, as Barber served the Lady Mustangs to a 6-0 lead. Southwest Valley came back to go ahead 9-8 and never trailed again, although Murray stayed within four points or less all the way to the final two points served by Olivia Jacobs, a stretch that included a well-placed tip and a slam spike to the floor by Myers.

“We played about as hard as we have played all year in sets one and three,” Shields said. “We told the girls going in we needed to serve, and we served 100 percent tonight. And, we needed to capitalize on their mistakes, because they are a good enough team that they will get their points. I thought for the most part we took advantage of when they served the ball in the net, or when they tipped it over we tried to attack it right back at them. We knew we had a tough battle coming in here to their place. They are not the number 15 team in the state for nothing.”

Barber led Murray with six kills and served 14 of 14 with two aces. Kinzee Eggers had three blocks. Setters Rylee Newton and Jayda Chew combined for seven assists and Teryn Shields and Newton each had four digs.

Murray bows out at 11-14. Seniors in their last match were Newton and defensive players Bailey Frederick and Michelle McBurney.

“Going into the season I figured .500 would be a realistic goal,” Shields said, “considering we lost five seniors and a junior (Katy Gibbs) moved away to Wayne. We basically have all of our hitters coming back next year. They have to put some time in the offseason if we want to get better.”

Delaney Dalton had four service aces and Lund notched three aces to lead a Southwest Valley serving game that was slightly off its best performance Tuesday with eight errors in three sets. Lund also had a team-high seven digs and Schafer had six.

UP NEXT — No. 15 Southwest Valley (24-5) hosts Stanton at 7 p.m. Monday in the quarterfinals. The Timberwolves defeated Stanton (21-14) in a previous meeting this season in a home triangular, 25-20, 22-25, 15-12. The winner plays either No. 10 East Mills or East Union on Oct. 31 at East Mills High School in Malvern.

SW Valley 3, Murray 0

SW Valley statistics

Serving (aces) — Delaney Dalton 15-16 (4), Norah Lund 15-16 (3), Isabelle Inman 6-7 (2), Olivia Jacobs 7-8 (2), Kayley Myers 13-15 (1), Jentry Schafer 9-11 (1).

Attacks (kills) — Schafer 25-29 (13), Myers 20-27 (9), Lund 11-14 (4), Dalton 7-10 (4), Larson 13-15 (2).

Blocks — Dalton 1, Schafer 1.

Setting (assists) — Inman 26.

Digs — Lund 7, Schafer 6, Dalton 5, Myers 3.

Murray statistics

Serving (aces) — Twila Barber 14-14 (2), Rylee Newton 9-9, Emma Decker 8-8 (1).

Attacks (kills) — Barber 16-17 (6), Kinzee Eggers 8-13 (4).

Blocks — Eggers 3, Teryn Shields 1.

Setting (assists) — Jayda Chew 19-22 (3), Rylee Newton 13-20 (4).

Digs — Shields 4, Newton 4.