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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
ROYAL CENTER — Bouncing back from their loss to Caston three days earlier in the Cass County Tournament final, the Pioneer volleyball team swept sectional rival Rochester, 25-11, 25-17, 25-15 on Aug. 15.
Pioneer improved to 2-1 going into the Franklin Central Invitational. Rochester dropped to 0-2 with the Tomahawk Invitational at North Miami ahead on the schedule.
Pioneer scored the first five points of the match, and after Rochester got back within 7-3, they went on another 7-0 run to increase the lead to 14-3.
Rochester cut a 17-10 deficit down to 20-17 in the second set before Pioneer coach Rod Nies called timeout. After the timeout, Pioneer scored the final five points of the set thanks to a Mackenzie Rogers kill, a Kylie Attinger ace, two Emma Sells service winners and a Ella Hake whiff on a kill attempt on set point.
In the third set, Rochester trailed 11-4 but got back within 17-14 thanks to a Keyton Doran kill on an overpass and a kill from freshman setter Aubrey Wilson, but Pioneer responded with an 8-1 run to close it out. Three Rogers kills and a Keirsten Nies kill were part of the run.
“Well, our intensity was much, much higher,” Pioneer coach Rod Nies said when asked to compare this match with the Cass County Tournament. “We knew we were going to have a nice little team with Rochester coming in here. We knew they were going to be young, but we wanted to stay focused and keep the energy high and really stay on them with our serve. And I thought our servers did a nice job of knocking them out of system. We don’t want to try to ace them; we just want to knock them out of system. If we get an ace, that’s great.”
Rochester played without junior outside hitter Lillee Lett and freshman Sophia Kouskousakis.
“It was an improvement for sure,” Rochester coach Laneia Strasser said. “We had a little bit of a step back in that we had a couple injuries and a couple sicknesses. So that was a step back in my mind. But as far as our ability in what we did today, I think we improved. Our serve receive still has a ways to go. Our hitters aren’t in system ever. We’re not giving our setter a pass that’s in system, so we still have a lot to improve on, but there were definitely improvements today.”
Pioneer def. Rochester, 25-11, 25-17, 25-15
Pioneer stats
Blair Grigsby – 2 aces, 15 digs, 8 assists; Keirsten Nies – 2 aces, 13 assists; Kylie Attinger – 2 aces; Mackenzie Rogers – 1 ace, 10 digs
Rochester stats
Brailyn Hunter – 1 kill, 1 block, 2 digs, 1 assist, 1 serve received; Ella Hake – 1 kill, 1 dig; Aubrey Wilson – 1 kill, 1 ace, 1 block, 3 digs, 4 assists, 3 serves received; Keyton Doran – 2 kills, 4 digs, 11 serves received; Audrey Bolinger – 3 kills, 3 blocks, 4 digs, 9 serves received; Logyn Honkomp – 2 aces, 7 digs, 15 serves received; Rylee Clevenger – 1 ace, 10 digs, 14 serves received; Darah Strasser – 5 digs, 7 serves received; Mia Howdeshell – 1 dig, 1 assist
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