NTL VOLLEYBALL: TROY TOPS TOWANDA AT HOME (2023-09-29)
BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports ReportTROY — In a match-up of two teams in the middle of the standings Troy was able to come out on top over Towanda, 3-1, during NTL volleyball action Thursday.
The Trojans came in 6-4, the Knights 5-6 as both have had a bit of an up-and-down season so far.
“They’ve been working and trying to get themselves up over a slump we get into,” said Troy coach Abby Herman. “They’re doing a really good job.”
Troy won the first set 25-12, Towanda won the next 25-15, then the Trojans took the final two sets 25-12 and 25-16.
The Trojans had 23 aces on the day as Towanda struggled with serve receive at times.
“That’s really awesome to see,” Herman said. “We still have quite a few missed serves, which isn’t what we want to be doing, but when they have a good hard serve it’s really hard for the other team to pass that ball.”
“They had some good servers at the line, so that plays a part, but definitely, we needed to get more passes in our setters hands and capitalize on that,” Towanda coach Cassie Smith said. “It just wasn’t our night in the passing game.”
Kali Ayers had nine kills, seven assists, four aces, and six digs for Troy. She had a couple well times push kills in the third and fourth set that really helped get them separation in those sets.
“I just saw the corners were wide open and that they were slow adjusting over there,” said Ayers.
“That’s huge for us,” said Herman. “She’s really good about seeing the other side of the court, and she does a really good job taking control like that.”
Aryana Andrus had 10 kills, two blocks, and two aces, with Marlee Stanton getting five kills, five digs, one block, one assists, and seven aces.
Josie Kerrick had four kills, two digs, three assists, and an ace, with Brenna Jackson getting three kills, seven digs, 13 assists, and four aces.
Lexi Kjellander notched two kills and eight digs with five assists, Rachel Jackson had two kills and four digs, and Taleka Stahle finished with two kills, two digs, one assists, and one ace.
Amber White chipped in with a dig, a kill, an assist, and four aces.
For Towanda Brynn Woodruff had nine kills, nine points, three aces, and four digs, as Brooklyn Evans had six kills, three blocks, and four digs.
Karis Flynn had three kills, two blocks, three points, five digs, and six assists, while Shay Greenland had eight digs, six assists, one block, four points, and two aces.
Kaya Johnson had 10 points, four assists, one kill, and one dig, while Caedence Wells had two digs, one kill, and one point.
Brynsen Vargason finished with nine points, four aces, two kills, and a dig, with Layla Miller getting four digs. Lilyann Sproule finished with one dig.
In the first set Troy jumped out to a 9-1 lead behind eight straight points from Brenna Jackson. Towanda cut it to 9-8 but back to back kills from Ayers and Andrus pushed the lead up to 11-8.
A net serve saw Towanda get as close as 11-9, but they got no closer, as the Trojans out pointed them 14-3 the rest of the way on five kills and three aces from White.
It was back and forth in the second set when the Knights got a Woodruff kill, followed by back to back aces out of Johnson to go up 8-2.
The Trojans cut it to 8-4, but after a bad serve Woodruff had an ace, followed by back to back kills from Evans to make it 12-4.
A Brenna Jackson ace, followed by kills from Ayers and Andrus made it 12-8. The two teams went back and forth until Vargason got the serve with the Knights up 15-11. She served up eight straight points to extend the Towanda lead to 23-11.
“We had some real good serves in that second set,” said Smith. “Brynsen Vargason, she came up big there, the ninth grader, in that second set. She got quite a few points, and Kaya Johnson did a job with the line there, too. It was a team effort, we had some good, positive energy, we had some momentum.”
Tied 1-1 the teams went back and forth early in the third set, with Towanda up 8-7, when Ayers got a kill to get the serve back.
She went on a tear, serving up seven straight points to, including four aces, to put the Trojans up 15-8.
“When I got back there I just think, ‘get it over,’” said Ayers.
Stanton would serve up six straight points to finish the set, four of them aces.
The Knights took an early lead in the fourth set, going up 7-4 thanks to two kills and an ace from Woodruff.
However, Troy would slowly get back into the match, using a Stanton ace to knot things up at 8-8.
The Trojans scored four straight points - three off kills - to take a 13-8 lead.
A Johnson kill ended that run, and they went back and forth to 15-10 when the Trojans scored two straight points to get to 17-10.
The Knights used a Woodruff kill, and Johnson ace, to cut it to 17-13, but Troy scored three straight after that to make it 20-13.
Towanda had one more rally, getting two straight points to make it 20-15, but an over the top call against them killed their momentum.
Troy went on to make it 23-15 when an attack into the net made it 23-16.
Ayers, though, had back to back push kills to end the match.
Troy JV won 25-22 and 25-22.
Raegan Comstock had 10 kills, and nine assists as Alli Bailey notched five kills, five digs, three blocks, five assists, and one ace.
Camryn Barbour had 10 kills, three digs, two blocks, three assists, and two aces, with Taylor Brown getting two kills, one dig, one assist, and three aces. Bella Wood added an assist, with an ace and two digs.
Alayna Rankin had three kills, five points, three digs, and four assists for Towanda as Lilyann Sproule added seven points, three kills, and an assist.
Leila Cobb had three digs with three points, Hannah Crawford notched three kills with five points, and Vargason had three points, one kill, one dig, and two assists.
Lariah Long finished with three digs and a kill, Kylee Barnes had two kills, and Layla Longcoy had a kill with two digs.
For the Knights, they continue to take steps in the right direction, as they look to make a push for districts.
“We just want to keep improving every day,” said Smith. “We take it one day at a time, one game at a time. Tonight, we took the loss, but one day at a time just keep improving.”
For the Trojans, both player and coach know what they’re going to be working on.
“We’re working on our defense, always,” said Herman. “They need to get better at moving their feet, and we’re getting there. We’re just not quite where we need to be yet.”
However, they can see their biggest goal at the end of the tunnel.
“I think this was a very important one to push us that much closer to districts,” remarked Ayers.
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PHOTO CAPTION: Troy’s Kali Ayers does a push kill…PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING
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