NTL VOLLEYBALL: TROY FINISHES SETS STRONG IN SWEEP OF NPL (2024-10-16)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
TROY — Troy kept pace with Wellsboro in the NTL Large School Division standings as they swept NP-Liberty, 3-0, during NTL volleyball action Tuesday.

Both the Trojans and Hornets won, setting up a big divisional contest on Thursday at the Commons Building.

“It definitely feels good, the girls played really well,” said Troy coach Abby Herman. “They’ve changed up their offensive techniques and it definitely showed tonight.”

Troy pulled away for a 25-18 win in the first set, but had to rally for 25-23 and 26-24 wins in the second and third sets.

“It was really nice, though, those close matches are more fun than the ones where you pull away,” said Herman. “There’s a lot more intensity involved, and it definitely paid off.”

Troy got their offense going in the first two sets, besting the Mounties on kills 19-8. NPL picked up their offense in the third set, getting the best of Troy on kills 16-10 but it was the Trojans making the plays down the stretch.

In the second set Troy was down 19-16 at one point but scored seven straight points - six of them served up by Brenna Jackson - to pull ahead 23-20. NPL would cut it to 24-23 but an attack into the net ended the set in Troy’s favor.

The Mounties led 19-16 in the third set, again, but Troy out scored them 10-5 to come away with the win.

“They kind of figured it out,” Herman said about her team. “They know what they need to do, and, no matter what I tell them, they know what has to happen for them to able to pull out the win.”

Kali Ayres had a double-double of 10 kills and 17 digs to go with two assists, and one ace, while Aryana Andrus had 11 kills and four blocks.

Marlee Stanton had six kills, three assists, four aces, nine digs, and an ace as Josie Kerrick had six kills, one assist, and two blocks.

Jackson finished with 24 assists, five digs, three aces, and two kills, as Camryn Barbour had two kills, one assist, two digs, and a block.

Alli Bailey had nine digs and an assist. 

Haidyn Watson added four digs, and one kill as Amber White and Lexi Kjellander each had a dig.

“I just tried to look for my spots,” Andrus said about her hitting on the night.

In the first set Troy led 5-2 early thanks to three Andrus kills. Three straight Trojan errors allowed NPl to tie things up, only for Troy to open up a 10-6 lead, punctuated by a Kerrick hit.

The lead got as big as 17-10, but four straight Mountie points made it a 3-point game again. The two teams would trade kills and blocks to 19-16.

A Trojan attack that was out made it a 2-point game, but five straight points from Troy - including kills from Andrus and Ayres, saw the Trojans build a 7-point cushion as they ultimately won 25-18.

Troy took an early lead in the second set, but watched as NPL took a 7-5 deficit and turn it into a 13-10 lead.

Three straight kills from Troy - two by Andrus, one by Ayres - made it 13-13. After trading points NPL would go on a run to push their advantage to 17-14.

Troy would chip away, out scoring them 5-2 over the next seven points to knot things up at 19-all on a Kerrick kill.

Troy’s run wouldn’t stop there as Jackson gave the Trojans a lead with an ace, followed by three straight Mountie errors to make it 23-19.

After a Troy service error stopped the run the two teams would trade points. NPL then got an ace out of Rylie Smith, followed by a kill from Haley Litzelman, to make it a 24-23 match.

NPL, though, had an attack go into the net on the next point to give the Trojans the win.

The Mounties rolled to a 7-1 start in the third set behind three kills and block out of Litzelman. 

After a Troy time-out Andrus had back to back kills to get Troy back into the match, and they chipped away to make it 10-7.

Back to back Mountie kills, though, pushed the lead back to 12-7, and they would extend it to as much as 15-9.

Troy rallied there, out scoring them 6-1 over the next seven points to make it a 1-point match.

The two teams traded points, followed by an NPL kill Kaylee Graham, then a block, to make it 19-16 Mounties.

Troy would respond with three straight kills - two by Ayres, one by Kerrick - knot the match up at 19-all.

Kendall Graham and Ayres then traded kills for a 20-20 score. After Troy was called for cupping to put NPL up one the Trojans rattled off three straight points - one on an NPL net serve, one on a Kerrick kill, and another on a Stanton block - to put the Trojans up 23-21.

NPL would come back with two straight points off a timeout to make it 23-all. An NPL attack into the net saw Troy go back up by one, but then a Mountie kill tied things up again.

Andrus, though, would shut the door with back to back kills to give Troy the 26-24 win.

The win is a good start as they get ready for Wellsboro on Thursday, though they’ll focus on cutting down the errors.

“That’s definitely been one of our focal points,” Herman said. “Besides defense, we’ve been really trying to eliminate the amount of errors we have. We still have quite a few, but that’ll definitely set us apart if we can get that under wraps.”

Still, the team is excited for the big showdown.

“We’re ready,” Andrus said. “I think we’re really ready.”

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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING

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