NTL VOLLEYBALL: NEB TOPS TROY IN BATTLE OF DIVISIONAL LEADERS (2024-09-30)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
ROME — In a match-up of the top two divisional leaders in the NTL NEB prevailed over Troy, 3-1, in volleyball action Monday. After dropping the first set thanks to a Trojan comeback the Panthers took the next three to stay undefeated on the season.

“This feels really amazing,” said NEB’s Toni Herb. “We had to keep our energy up, and that’s what we did.”

The Trojans scored six of the final seven points to win the first set 25-21 but NEB won the next three sets 25-22, 25-20, and 25-16.

The Panthers jumped out to early leads in all four matches, forcing the Trojans to play catch-up all night long.

“It was really important because if we had gotten behind I think we would have gotten our energy down,” explained Herb. “It would have probably taken us down, but we kept our energy up.”

The two teams came in a combined 20-1 on the season, with NEB 11-0, and Troy 9-1, having one nine straight since their opening season loss.

“We lost a game to them in the tournament at Williamson, and we’ve spent the rest of the season trying not to let the big hitter beat us, we’ve been prepping for them. Last year it was NP-Liberty, this year it’s been Troy, and it was fun to beat them at home with our crowd in our gym.”

After a strong hitting first set the Trojans struggled just enough to find the floor over the next three that a team like NEB was able to take advantage. By the time the third set came around they had worn down - it was 12-12 at one point then the Panthers out scored them 13-4 the rest of the way to secure the win.

“I felt like our passing was just a little off tonight,” said Troy coach Abby Herman. “We just couldn’t seem to adjust to their hitters, they were finding our holes tonight.”

Herb with her cross-court hits did most of the damage for NEB.

“I saw that that side was always open, and the line was pretty much open, and Aryanna (Andrus) was blocking the line, so I knew I had to go across to get points,” explained Herb.

Herb had a 20-20 match with 24 kills and 22 digs to go with one ace.

Kelsea Moore had a double-double of 18 assists and 15 digs to go with one ace. Abby O’Connor notched 13 kills, two blocks, and two digs, as Kiarra DeLancey had 20 digs, three kills, three aces, and seven assists.

Abby Chobot had 14 digs and seven kills, Zaelea Lane notched 20 digs, seven assists, and an ace, and Sayde Heines finished with an assist.

Herman tried to changing up her defense to account for that but couldn’t find the right combination.

“It didn’t seem like things were working out for us today,” she said. “The girls wanted it, but Northeast Bradford, I think they wanted it a little bit more, especially after the couple of sets at the Williamson Tournament where we got them. Volleyball is such a strong mental game, and they had it today, and we just couldn’t seem to find a rhythm that we were comfortable in.”

Of the team’s 58 kills Andrus had 28 of them for Troy, to go with one assist, one dig, and three blocks.

Marlee Stanton had a double-double of 11 kills and 12 digs, plus an assist and an ace, as Brenna Jackson had 41 assists and 11 digs for a double-double, while adding two kills.

Kali Ayres had eight kills, 29 digs, one assist, and one ace, while Josie Kerrick added seven kills, three assists, two aces, and eight digs.

Alli Bailey finished with 11 digs, one kill, and one assist, as Haidyn Watson had 10 digs, one kill, and one ace. Camryn Barbour chipped in with a block.

While Andrus had a hit percentage of .351, Troy as a team was just .148.

“We have a really good libero,” Perez said about Kiarra DeLancey. “She moves around a lot, she’s kind of like the glue to our backcourt, and we put a lot of faith that she’s going to just go around and pick up everything.”

If fans like offense they’d like the opening half to he first set as out of the first 20 points, 15 came off kills. 

After starting out 4-4 NEB jumped out to a 9-5 lead thanks to kills from Abby Chobot and Herb, while a couple of Troy errors.

Troy clawed their way back to 11-11, with Watson getting an ace to knot the set up.

However, two Troy errors and an Abby O’Connor kill saw NEB retake a 14-11 lead.

The lead got as big as four points, with NEB extending it to 19-15 before two NEB errors and a Stanton kill saw the match squeeze to 19-18.

An Herb kill made it 20-18, but after that it was all Troy.

Kerrick came up big down the stretch, getting a kill to get the serve back, then serving up back to back aces to put Troy up.

An Andrus kill made it 22-20, with Herb ending the run behind a kill of her own.

Andrus, though, got the serve back for Troy with a kill, then back to back NEB passing errors saw Troy take the first set 25-21.

The second set was much like the first, with NEB taking an 8-4 lead, with five of the points coming off Troy errors.

The Trojans would rally again, this time making it a 10-10 match.

However, NEB scored five of the next six points to go up 15-11, thanks to kills from Herb, O’Connor, and DeLancey.

That lead got as big as 19-14 as Zaelea Lane served up three straight points before, once again, Troy went on a run.

They scored six of the next seven points to tie things up at 20-20 off back to back Kerrick kills.

However, on two of the next three points Troy’s attack couldn’t find the floor, putting NEB up 22-21.

Kelsea Moore made it a 2-point set with an ace. After a Troy time out Moore’s serve was out making it a 1-point game.

However, back to back kills from Herb and O’Connor gave NEB the 3-point win to knot the sets at 1-all.

Once again it was NEB taking an early lead in the third set, going up 7-4 on an O’Connor block. 

The lead got as big as 15-10 when Troy called a timeout.

After getting a point when NEB thought a free ball was out but landed in Andrus caught fire, hitting five straight kills to put the Trojans up 16-15, prompting the Panthers to call a time-out.

An Herb kill, followed by a DeLancey ace put them back on top 17-16. 

Stanton would knot the score up at 17-all with a kill but kills from Herb and O’Connor made it a 2-point set in favor of NEB.

Troy cut it to 20-19 at one point off an Andrus kill, but NEB took five of the next six points to pull out the set, 25-20.

The third set saw NEB get up by as much as four points only for Troy to come back and tie-up at 12.

However, the Panthers rattled off seven straight points to go up 19-12.

Back to back Andrus kills would make it 19-15, but that’s as close as it got for the Trojans, with NEB out scoring them 6-1 the rest of the way to roll to the 3-1 match win.

Troy (9-2) now has two league losses as they fall behind Wellsboro in the league standings for Large School.

They’ll look to rebound at NP-Liberty on Tuesday with a 7:30 p.m. start.

NEB improves to 12-0 as they look to divisional play in the Small School, traveling to Wyalusing on Tuesday, then having a big showdown with 1-loss Williamson on Thursday.

As for now, they’re going to enjoy being undefeated heading into October.

“It feels good when you’re undefeated because people are coming after you,” Perez said. “You always have a lot of work to do. This is probably the best we’ve played all season. We’ve changed our rotation a couple times as we move some people into different spots, and I feel like we’ve finally found something that works.”

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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING

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