BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports Report
TROY — A lot happened with Troy volleyball on Tuesday. They avenged a loss from earlier in the season to NTL Small School Champions NEB, they saw two players get milestones, and they clinched the NTL Large School title.
“It’s definitely something they’ve been working for since the beginning of the season,” Troy coach Abby Herman said. “They really wanted it, and you can tell by their emotions out on the court. Things just feel in the right way for them, and, ultimately, out there it just matters who wants it more.”
The Trojans swept NEB 3-0, winning the sets 25-20, 25-15, and 25-22.
“We’ve been working on this all season, we’re just glad to get to this point,” said senior Kali Ayres. “Coming into tonight we just wanted to come together and play as a team, and play our best.”
Ayres and Brenna Jackson both had double-doubles, with Ayres getting 12 kills and 11 digs, while Jackson had 28 assists and 13 digs to go with a block, a kill, and an ace.
Jackson nabbed her 750th career assist in the win, as well.
“It’s crazy,” Jackson said about hitting 750 assists, adding about being league champs, “I don’t really have works, but it’s really special to me. I’ve been playing with these girls since I was in seventh grade, I always knew we were good, but I never thought that we would do something like this.”
Aryana Andrus had 13 kills to lead the Trojans, to go with one assist, one dig, and two blocks, as she earned her 500th career kill.
“It means a lot,” Andrus said about the milestone. “I couldn’t have done it without my team, especially my setter (Brenna Jackson). We have a really good connection, we’re best friends.”
Marlee Stanton had seven kills, four aces, and seven digs, as Josie Kerrick added two kills, three digs, three blocks, and an ace.
Camryn Barbour had two kills, an ace, and two digs, with Amber White getting a kill, and an assist.
Alli Bailey chipped in with five aces, two assists, and seven digs, as Lexi Kjellander had five digs, and Haidyn Watson had two aces with a dig.
For NEB Toni Herb had 11 kills, seven digs, and four aces, as Kiarra DeLancey had 18 digs, one assist, and one ace.
Abby O’Connor notched seven kills, two digs, and an ace, as Zaelea Lane had 13 digs, and three assists.
Kelsea Moore finished with 15 assists, five digs, and one kill, while Abby Chobot had two kills, nine digs, one assist, and two aces.
Sayde Heines and Madalyn Smith each had a dig.
The first set was a game of runs, and NEB had the first big run, taking a 5-1 lead right off the bat.
“We were really nervous,” Jackson said about coming in. “We’ve been working really hard in practice this week, doing a lot of defense, and offense, and everything.”
That started to show through as they cut it to 5-4 on an Andrus kill.
A Toni Herb kill put the Panthers up 6-4, but then Troy went on a 7-point run, six of them served up by Stanton, to go up 11-6.
NEB would come out of a time-out and score three straight points to make it 11-9, only for Troy to rally again, and take a 15-9 lead.
It was NEB’s turn after that, scoring four straight points - two of them off Abby Chobot aces - to cut it to 15-13.
The two teams would trade kills after until NEB tied it up at 18-all.
An Andrus kill, followed by a passing error by NEB saw Troy take a 20-18 lead.
A Trojan attacking error would make it a 1-point game again, but Troy answered in a big way, scoring five of the final six points to get the win.
“That’s just the game,” Stanton said about the team trading runs. “We just need to get back on track, and get ahead of them again.”
Andrus had a big hand in it with two blocks, and a kill.
NEB started the third set with a small 3-1 lead off an Herb kill, and led 5-3, but Troy would go on a three point run to take an 8-6 lead.
NEB would cut it to 8-7 on an Abby O’Connor block, but it was all Troy after that, scoring eight of the net 11 points to take a 16-10 lead.
NEB called timeout, and cut it to 16-12, but an Andrus kill ended that rally.
The Panthers never threatened Troy again as the Trojans out pointed them 8-3 the rest of the way.
“The smile on my face was big,” Stanton said about moving to one set away from the win.
The third set started 4-4 with Troy going up 6-4 on a pair of NEB errors.
A Trojan service error cut it to 6-5, but three straight Troy points - all on NEB errors - put the Trojans up 9-5.
Troy appeared to be running away with the third set as they built a 12-6 lead, but back to back passing errors got NEB back into it.
The Panthers would chip away until it was 13-11, thanks to a pair of Herb kills.
A big rally on the next point by Troy ended with an Ayres kill to make it 14-11.
They would push the lead to 16-11 on a Stanton once, but four straight points from NEB cut it to 16-15.
An Andrus kill followed by an NEB hit that missed the floor gave Troy some breathing room, but it quickly eroded thanks to an O’Connor kill, followed by Troy getting called for cupping.
The teams would trade points, but an Andrus kill forced NEB to take a timeout down 18-20.
That started a big Troy run as Bailey served up an ace for a 3-point lead.
Chobot would get a block to make it a 2-point set, but back to back Ayres kills put the Trojans two points away.
Troy would get called for a double-touch, but a Barbour hit made it 24-20.
NEB didn’t go away, though, cutting it to 24-22 and forcing Troy into a timeout.
During the break Herman told her team to just ‘finish it out.’
“Take your time, do what you’re comfortable with, and play the game that you can play,” she said.
Coming out it was Stanton getting the winning kill, a hit that bounced off the top of the net, and fell just over to the other side.
“It was scary,” Stanton said about seeing which way the ball would bounce off the net. “But it feels good.”
Both teams have one regular season match left on Thursday - Troy travels to CV, NEB hosts Towanda - before district play begins.
NEB will likely be in a semifinal on Saturday for Class A, while Troy won’t be on the court again until the Class AA semifinals next Tuesday.
“We just have to make sure things are fine tuned for when we play teams in districts,” said Herman. “Making sure we have our defense and our offense figured out. Things that we can change up so that people we’ve already played aren’t used to anything that we’ve done.”
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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING
