.png)
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Makayla Walley Brailyn Hunter Amara Wieringa
The Wabash volleyball team eliminated Rochester from the sectional in 2024 and 2025.
The Lady Zs are making up for lost time and lost matches.
Makayla Walley returned from missing Saturday’s Bremen Invitational due to an ankle injury to put down seven kills, and Brailyn Hunter also had seven kills as the Lady Zs beat Wabash 25-12, 25-21, 25-13 at the RHS gym Tuesday.
Rochester improved to 15-8 overall and clinched a winning Three Rivers Conference record at 5-3.
Wabash dropped to 8-18, 0-6.
Rochester improved to 2-0 on the year against the Lady Apaches. Rochester also beat Wabash in a best-of-three match at the Tomahawk Invitational at North Miami on Aug. 22.
Amara Wieringa added five kills for the Lady Zs, who were hosting their annual Pink Out night.
Emma Mathias led the team with four aces and 16 digs and added eight serves received, and libero Logyn Honkomp added back row support with 10 digs and 11 serves received.
Rochester went 1-2 at Bremen. Coach Laneia Strasser emphasized communication bat Monday’s practice.
Rochester relied on quick starts in the first two sets, jumping out to an 11-2 lead in Set 1 and a 6-1 lead in Set 2.
Walley mixed up tips and strong attacks from both the outside and opposite sides in the first set, capped by a nifty tip that made it 23-12.
“It was good, and she looked good out there,” Rochester coach Laneia Strasser said of Walley. “It didn’t look like it was super painful. I think she just gave us a little bit more experience in the front row where we kind of lacked with that at Bremen a little bit. She just makes smart choices, and tonight was a good example. She just made a lot of really good choices. She’s aggressive up there.”
Walley, a freshman who plays club for Boilers Junior based out of Lafayette, said she and senior setter Aubrey Wilson worked on developing a setter-hitter relationship going back to June.
Wilson finished with 21 assists.
“We put a lot of work in over the summer,” Walley said. “I think that’s what made it grow so quickly. At the beginning of the season, I feel like we had a strong relationship and connection with each other. … She’s a good setter. She’s very smart, and she knows when to put the ball over and when to set it and whom to set it to. She’s a very good setter placing the ball and everything. She’s good defensively too.”
They then finished strong, going on an 8-0 run to break open the third set and get the match to 24-11 before finishing off the match on their third match point.
Walley had two stuff blocks and a kill, and Mathias had an ace, but the highlight during the run might have been Honkomp’s free ball kill from deep in the back row after a diving dig from Mathias that turned into an assist.
Strasser said much of the talking at practice Monday was about, well, talking, and she said it was especially important that the back row be more talkative. She said she is emphasizing communication the way her high school coach Katie Felke did with her.
“I’ve gotten rough on the back row and said, ‘You have to talk more, you have to talk more, you have to talk more,’” coach Strasser said. “For some reason, it keeps falling on deaf ears. I lit into them after Set 2 and said you’ve got to talk more. The back row sets the tone of communication, and I think they finally did that better, and they play better when they talk more.”
Rochester again played without Adalyn Gonzalez, who suffered a concussion in a match at Northfield Sept. 17.
The Lady Zs host Winamac for senior night tonight. They travel to Tippecanoe Valley Monday before returning to conference play with an Oct. 8 match at Whitko.
Meanwhile, the IHSAA draw is Sunday. Rochester will host Class 2A, Sectional 38, which begins Oct. 15.
“I believe that we can,” Walley said when asked if the team can win sectionals. “I think we can beat Maconaquah. I think that if we just focus and really want to win, I think that we have enough talent to do it.”
Rochester def. Wabash, 25-12, 25-21, 25-13
ROCHESTER STATS
Makayla Walley – 7 kills, 1 ace, 3 digs; Aubrey Wilson – 3 kills, 1 ace, 4 digs, 21 assists; Kinley McKee – 2 kills, 4 digs; Sylvia McCall – 1 kill, 1 dig; Brailyn Hunter – 7 kills, 5 digs, 4 serves received; Amara Wieringa – 5 kills, 3 serves received; Emma Mathias – 4 aces, 16 digs, 8 serves received; Logyn Honkomp – 10 digs, 11 serves received; Lyla Bowers – 4 digs, 3 serves received; Rilyn Strasser – 5 digs, 1 serve received; KayLea McCarty – 2 digs, 1 serve received; Jenna Seuferer – 1 dig
