On Sept. 19 of last season the Wolverines volleyball team took on the Hawks at Hawken High School. On that day, the Hawks swept the season series over the Wolverines for the third year in a row, winning the match 3-0.
Match photos click here.
Hawken has dominated the volleyball rivalry with West Geauga.
On Sept. 19 of last season the Wolverines volleyball team took on the Hawks at Hawken High School. On that day, the Hawks swept the season series over the Wolverines for the third year in a row, winning the match 3-0.
In reflecting upon last season’s loss to the Hawks, senior captain and first team All-Conference CVC player, Malory Lear said that the Wolverines were confident and motivated to get revenge on their neighborhood rival.
“I think we came in (with) a lot of confidence,” Lear said. “We wanted revenge from last year because last year was a bit of a rough game here. We lost in three last year. And I think we wanted revenge against them and we came in with some more confidence and more energy and we really showed them.”
Junior CVC All-Conference player, Anna Grill added, “I think we all just knew that we hadn’t beat them in past years. So we really wanted to beat them this year, so we all just had that confidence.”
Never having beaten the Hawks in their varsity volleyball career, Lear and Grill turned the tide on their opponents this year as they led their team to a dominant 3-0 victory on Sept. 18.
When asked how things were different in this year’s match with the Hawks, Lear cited the mental game and overcoming adversity as keys to success.
She said that last year when they made mistakes, the Wolverines had difficulty staying focused on the task at hand and there were breakdowns in on-court communication.
“I think (last year), we started to get down, and our team kind of fell apart, not yelling at each other, but there was just some tension and we weren’t all playing as a team,” said Lear.
In this season’s 3-0 victory over the Hawks, Lear noted that the team handled adversity more effectively. In addition, she believed that the team was able to stay in the present.
“Today, we forgot about our mistakes, which sometimes will get in our head, but we forgot about them today,” Lear said. “We thought about the next ball and (doing better) on the next play, (because) you can’t change anything from the past, so you can just do it better next time.”
With a strong mental game, the Wolverines defeated the Hawks in three straight sets, 25-12, 25-12 and 25-18.
West Geauga Head Coach Amber Baker said that the Wolverines were ready to play and were focused strategically on dictating the pace of play and running as many plays as possible in order to develop strong cohesion.
Setting up and assisting on the offensive attack for the Wolverines was Lear, who Coach Baker said was calling the plays based on the situation. Against the Hawks, Lear focused on getting the volleyball to middle hitters, junior Ella Grill and sophomore Kelsie Fink, outside hitters, juniors Anna Grill and Joelle Insana, and right side hitters, seniors Jill Drabek and Emma Laurich.
With excellent accuracy on her sets, Lear led the Wolverines with 25 assists. Many of these assists set up Anna Grill for the kill.
“Anna obviously was killing it from the outside,” said Coach Baker.
Anna Grill said that the team worked well together and that Lear did a great job of setting the offense up for the kill.
“Especially with Malory, she’s just helping us a lot, setting us up, and I just think our offense is very strong, we are all really good hitters,” Anna Grill said.
For the match, the Wolverines potent offensive attack led to 35 kills. Leading the Wolverines were Anna Grill (13 kills), Drabek (6), Insana (4), Lear (4), Fink (3), Ella Grill (3), Peyton Gambatese (1) and Laurich (1).
In addition to excellent offense, Ella Grill emphasized that defensively the Wolverines gave great effort in trying to keep the volleyball from hitting the floor.
“I think we had a lot of fun and we all talked to each other and we were just going for every ball and we were really hustling,” said Ella Grill.
The Wolverines defensive effort and hustle resulted in accumulating 39 digs, 32 serve receptions, and 6 blocks for the match.
Leading the Wolverines in digs against the Hawks was sophomore defensive specialist, Olivia Penzenik (11), Insana (8), Lear (6), Mia Formichelli (5), Gambatese (3), Anna Grill (3), Fink (2) and Drabek (1).
Also, serve receptions leaders for the Wolverines were sophomore defensive specialist Mia Formichelli (11), Penzenik (9), Anna Grill (7), Insana (4) and Gambatese (1).
