NTL VOLLEYBALL: TROY HOLDS OFF TOUGH LOYALSOCK CHALLENGE TO CLAIM DISTRICT IV, CLASS AA TITLE (2025-10-31)
BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports ReportATHENS — When Troy’s Ary Andrus stepped to the service line with game point in the fourth set the Trojan fans serenaded her with ‘MVP, MVP, MVP.’ Andrus couldn’t help but smiled as she served up the final point that gave the Trojans a 3-1 win over Loyalsock and claim the District IV, Class AA Volleyball title Thursday.
“It feels good,” Andrus said about the chants. “I try to be the player that my team looks forward to on the court, so I think I accomplished that tonight.”
The upstart Lancers certainly didn’t make it easy fighting Troy to three 2-point sets in the first three games.
The Trojans eked out a 25-23 first game win only to see the Lancers pull out a 26-24 second game victory.
Troy took a key third game, 27-25, then rallied for a 25-19 fourth game victory to secure the match.
“Unbelievable,” is how setter Brenna Jackson described Troy’s first district title in more than a decade.
“We kind of fell short last year, so being able to stick it out is really awesome,” added Troy libero Ali Bailey.
This was definitely redemption for the Trojans who lost in five exciting sets a year ago to Wellsboro.
“I honestly don’t know if I have words for how the way it feels,” said coach Abby Herman-Deitrick. “These girls deserve it more than anything. They’ve worked their absolute butts off this entire season. I couldn’t ask for more from them during practice, and they obviously put it to work tonight.”
While Troy swept the Lancers earlier in the year this was a different Loyalsock team. They were scrappy, and crafty, all night long, led by their setter Layla Wetzel.
“I had warned them about that,” Herman-Deitrick explained. “They have some very good players, and they use those players to their advantage. We had to do the same thing with ours, do what we know how to do, and what we do well. I think the biggest things we struggled with was just making errors.”
Andrus had another big night at the net as she hit 26 of the team’s 50 kills while adding four aces, one assist, one block, and a dig.
“She’s really hard to stop,” Herman-Deitrick said about her middle hitter. “I feel like her height is already a big impression on a lot of people, so when they see that on the court, she’s just really hard to stop.”
It wasn’t just Andrus tonight, though, as six other players registered kills.
Bella Wood finished with eight kills and four digs, while sophomore Haidyn Watson added six kills, one assist, five aces, and 12 digs.
When Andrus sits Watson is usually the target of Jackson’s sets.
“I wouldn’t call it pressure, but I just say that I feel like I have to take control over what I’m doing, and where I’m going,” Watson said. “I have to be smart where I’m putting it, because I’m not as tall as her, as much of a power hitter, so I just have to be smart.”
Bailey had three kills from the backline to go with four assists, three aces, and 19 digs.
Often manning the back line with her were freshmen Liana Lyon and Alexa Lawrence to go with Watson. Lyon had six digs and ace, while Lawrence finished with two kills, two aces, and 16 digs.
“I played with Haidyn last year, she’s amazing,” said Bailey. “We have great communication. Obviously, I’m still working with the freshmen, but they really feel their roles very well.”
Senior Amber White stepped up with three kills, and three digs.
“We definitely had to use everybody tonight because for a while we couldn’t find anything that worked when Aryana wasn’t in there,” remarked Herman-Deitrick. “Bella and Amber both had fantastic games all the way around. I would say the girls had to do more than what they’ve had to do against any other NTL team, because districts is a little different atmosphere.”
Tying it all together was Jackson’s 41 assists to go with two kills, three aces, 13 digs, and a block.
The first set saw Troy take a 6-3 lead only for Loyalsock to rally for a 13-11 advantage.
The two teams went back and forth to 15-all until the Trojans rattled off five straight points behind an Andrus kill and three aces.
After a Loyalsock time-out the Lancers would grind back, tying things up at 23-all.
A Watson kill gave Troy a one point lead, then a Lancer hit into the net clinched the first set for the Trojans.
“It really was an eye opener,” Jackson said about the first set. “We got a wakeup call, and saw that we had to give a little more effort.”
“It was tough,” added Andrus. “But we pushed through, and we got it all powered through.”
The Lancers came out hot in the second set as they took a 5-1 lead.
Troy battle back, scoring four straight to tie things up at 5-all, only for Loyalsock to push ahead for a 13-9 lead.
A Watson kill, followed by back to back aces from Jackson cut it to 13-12.
Loyalsock would get some breathing room to 15-13, but five straight points from Troy - two coming off Andrus kills, and two from Bailey aces - put them up 18-15.
The lead got as big as 21-17 but Loyalsock didn’t let Troy get away, eventually tying it up at 23-all.
Watson had a kill to put Troy up 24-23, but a service error and a hitting error put Loyalsock up 25-24.
The Lancers finished things off with a kill for the 26-24 win to knot the match up at 1-1.
“(Coach) just told us to calm down, and play how we play at practice,” Andrus said about their huddle. “Just focus on the things that we need to do, and minimize our errors and push through.”
The third set was back and forth all the way through with no team getting more than a 3-point lead up to a 21-21 tie.
A Loyalsock hitting error put the Trojans up 22-21, followed by a Jackson kill making it a 2-point game.
A Trojan service error cut it back to one, but a Bailey kill put Troy on the brink.
However, back to back kills from the Lancers tied thing sup at 24-all.
A Loyalsock error saw Troy retake the lead, only to give it back off a passing error.
Andrus would get a kill for a 26-25 lead, then a point off a Watson serve gave Troy the crucial 27-25 win for the 2-1 lead.
Loyalsock had one more push left in them and used to take a 6-0 lead at the start of the third.
Troy cut the deficit to 7-4 but saw the Lancers push their advantage back out to 12-6.
From that point on, though, Troy out scored them 19-7 as they went on a 10-2 run to take a 16-14 lead.
“We definitely fell behind,” Watson said, “For us to be able to come back from that is just crazy. For us to get out of our own heads and just continue to compete.”
Loyalsock would knot things up at 16-all but five straight points from the Trojans - three off Andrus kills, two off Watson aces - made it 21-16.
Loyalsock cut it to 21-18 but back to back Andrus kills put the Trojans up 23-18.
After a Lancer kill Andrus got another hit, then brought it home with the service point.
“We got a couple good points going, then we started to get confidence back,” Jackson said.
The Trojans now travel to District II power Holy Redeemer on Tuesday, November 4.
Many a District IV champions usually see their season end against Holy Redeemer, who beat Wellsboro last year in the first round of states.
“We’re going to do all we can to put a stop to them,” Herman-Deitrick said. “If we can get rid of our errors I saw we have a nice game out of it, and things go our way.”
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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING— —
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