BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports Report
ATHENS — Troy volleyball looked like a team on a mission during the District IV, Class AA quarterfinals Saturday. The Trojans swept a red hot Towanda team, 3-0, to punch their ticket to the semifinals as they work to get redemption from last year’s second place finish in the playoffs.
“We pounded our hearts out in this game, and we’re ready for the semifinals,” said Troy’s Aryana Andrus.”
The first two sets were hard fought as the Trojans won both 25-21, then they pulled away for a 25-15 third set win.
During the season Towanda played the Trojans tough, taking them to four sets in their first meeting, and five at Towanda. Troy coach Abby Herman-Deitrick was confident coming in, though.
“We kind have been playing a few really good games,” she said. “We needed to clean up our mistakes. It is hard to play another team three times, so they were very aware, but we’ve been working the last two weeks on changing things because we kind of saw this coming.”
For the Knights it’s a tough end to an extraordinary week that saw them rally to clinch their first playoff berth this decade.
They beat the defending district champions Wellsboro on Tuesday to punch their ticket to districts, and rolled past Montoursville Friday night to get into the quarters.
“It just wasn’t our day,” said Towanda coach Cassie Smith. “Our girls were making good plays, defensively they were getting a lot up, so I’m really proud of them for that. This is their first experience in district volleyball, so it’s a whole new level of play, and I’m really proud of how they came out today.”
Andrus had a strong day at the net with 22 kills and four blocks for Troy to go with two aces, and a dig. At one point in the third set she had four straight kills to end a Towanda run and put things out of reach.
“It feels amazing,” Andrus said about her play. “We’ve been really working everything at practice so it feels good.”
Haidyn Watson added eight kills, six digs, and one ace for the Trojans, including two key attacks to secure the second set win.
“Aryana is really hard to pass off of anyway, and Haidyn has been working on so much for me, and I give her all the credit to everything that she’s been able to do,” remarked Herman-Deitrick. “She takes what we say, and she puts it to work out on the court. I’m really proud of the way both of them played, but especially Haidyn Stepping up as a sophomore.”
Brenna Jackson continued to run things, with 33 assists on the team’s 38 kills. She also had a kill and six digs.
Defensively, Alli Bailey led the way with 19 digs to go with three kills, two assists, and an ace. Alexa Lawrence had 10 digs, one kill, and one ace.
“Haidyn, Alli, Alexa, all the way around they played very well,” Herman-Deitrick said about her team’s backline. “I couldn’t have asked for very much more from any of them.”
Bella Wood had two kills, one dig, and one block, Amber White notched one kill and two blocks, and Liana Lyon added one dig and an ace.
For Towanda Karis Flynn had 15 assists, 11 digs, six kills, one block, and five points as Brooklyn Evans notched nine digs, four kills, three points, and an ace.
Brynsen Vargason had 13 digs, and one point, with Lariah Long getting nine digs, four kills, six points, an ace, and an assist.
Caedence Wells had six points, four aces, and two digs, with Alayna Rankin getting four kills, three digs, and an assist.
Addy Barrett had seven points, three kills, three blocks, and two digs, while Kaya Johnson added three kills.
The Black Knights came out strong in the first set as they built a 9-4 lead. The Trojans chipped away, though, eventually tying it up at 11-11, then taking a 16-11 lead.
Evans and Watson then traded kills, followed by a 3-0 run from Towanda to cut it to 17-15. After the two teams traded kills again back to back Evans aces made it 18-all.
The two teams would tie put 19-19, 20-20, and 21-21 as a Towanda serve that went long put Troy up 22-21.
Back to back Trojan kills followed by a Black Knight hit into the net gave the Trojans the four point win.
It was Troy that jumped out early in the second set, going up 4-1 thanks to a pair of Andrus kills. Towanda could cut the deficit to two a few times before another Trojan run saw them go up 10-5.
That’s when it was Towanda’s turn to start to chip away as they tied it up at 11-11, with the two teams trading points to 14-14.
Three straight Black Knight errors followed by an Andrus kill pushed Troy back in front 18-14. After a timeout Towanda rallied, cutting it to 21-20.
However, a Watson kill gave Troy a 2-point cushion. A serve into the net by the Trojans made it a 1-point game again, but another Watson kill took the momentum back.
Back to back Towanda hits into the net gave Troy the 25-21 win.
Troy took another big lead to start the third set, going up by as much as 16-6. Towanda rallied with five straight points after that, but Troy came back with three straight to go up 19-11.
The Knights cut it to a 5-point match at 19-14 but four straight Andrus kills put Troy firmly in control.
A Trojan hit into the net ended the run, but another Andrus kill followed by a Towanda attack into the net gave the Trojans the win.
The loss stings now for Towanda, but it doesn’t change the fact that this year’s squad put the Black Knights back on the map.
“They improved in all elements of the game, whether it’s serve receive, defense, attack, whatever it may be they really have improved,” Smith said. “They should be proud of themselves for how they grew this season.”
As for Troy they have a date with NP-Liberty on Tuesday with a 7 p.m. start back at Athens. The Mounties beat Williamson 3-1 in their quarterfinal match.
Troy swept NPL twice this year but know the Mounties will be ready come next week.
“Hopefully the new rotation that we’ve been running holds strong,” Herman-Deitrick said.
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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING
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