Rochester falls in 5, loses to Manchester for 4th straight year
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Rochester volleyball team cannot shake Manchester no matter how well the match starts.
For the fourth straight year, Rochester lost to Manchester Tuesday. And for the third time in those four years, Manchester won despite losing the first set.
Manchester pulled out this win 21-25, 25-21, 19-25, 25-18, 15-11 at the RHS gym Tuesday.
Manchester improved to 12-7 overall and 4-0 in the Three Rivers Conference.
Rochester dropped to 11-5, 3-2. They lost to Southwood Thursday and went 2-2 at the Rossville Invitational Saturday after a one-week layoff.
Communication and trust have been points of conversation inside the Rochester locker room. While the team has already exceeded last year’s win total, this might be the first slump of the season after a 9-1 start.
“We ended kind of on a low note on Saturday (a loss to Faith Christian),” Rochester coach Laneia Strasser said. “We had a big talk yesterday about the mental side of the sport and how important it is. I felt like mentally we were better, and then we started out tonight doing well. A lot of it, they just have to learn to trust each other, and they have to learn to communicate. We are too quiet on the court. That was obvious too. So I think our confidence, it’s not there right now, but it will get there.”
Rochester trailed 5-3 in the fifth set but scored the next three points and took their only lead. It started with a booming kill from the right side from Amara Wieringa, a roll shot to the middle of the court from Brailyn Hunter and a Makayla Walley kill from the middle.
Manchester responded by riding Ella Peden – two kills and a stuff block to take an 8-6 lead.
A Hunter kill from the opposite side made it 8-7, but another Peden kill and a Walley tip error into the net made it 10-7 and necessitated Strasser calling timeout.
The teams then traded sideouts to 13-10 before a Peden stuff block gave Manchester a match point.
A Lacy Trump kill error kept the match alive before the high-flying Peden ended it on the next point.
“We were too slow on our blocks,” Strasser said. “Obviously, we struggled with blocking tonight. It’s a big part of the game, and we slacked there. We’re too slow.”
The first set was tied 17-17 before the Lady Zs went on a 5-0 run. Walley and Hunter had kills after a Marysa Stroud service error to start the run. A Peden kill error and a Trump error from the opposite side made it 22-17.
A Walley service winner would get Rochester a set point. Four points later, Hunter ended the set with a kill.
Manchester led 18-17 in the second set before winning six straight points. Rochester would respond by fighting off the first four Lady Squire set points, including a dig kill from Wieringa and a Sylvia McCall to get within 24-21.
But McCall missed on an attack to end the set.
Set 3 was tied 17-17 before setter Aubrey Wilson’s hard two-handed tip led to a Kendall Lauer hitting error. A McCall stuff block and a Wieringa kill made it 20-17.
A Lauer kill and a Lauer stuff block kept Manchester within 21-19, but Rochester scored the final four points.
Wieringa went down the right sideline with a two-handed tip, Trump went long on a kill try, Hunter had a kill, and Trump missed down the left sideline to close out the set.
Rochester was ahead, but Strasser warned the team.
“I specifically said after we were up two sets to one this isn’t a team that gives up,” Strasser said. “They’re hustlers. They’re scrappy. You have to go out there and work really, really hard to win this next set, and … they had a huge run in that set. I think after a long weekend on a tournament, you have one day of practice to refine some stuff, and they’re girls. It’s a mental sport, and they couldn’t battle back after that. And you get behind in Set 5 as well, and we just mentally weren’t there tonight to push past that.”
In the fourth set, Manchester was ahead 8-7 when Cumberland put down two aces in a four-point run. Manchester would add another three-point run and a four-point run as the lead got to 21-12.
A Hunter roll shot and a Walley power tip cut the deficit to 21-15, but the Lady Squires would get the lead back to 24-16 on a Kaylin Johnson kill and an Adalyn Gonzalez miss.
A Wilson stuff block and a Wieringa tip staved off the first two set points, but Cumberland won a joust at the net on a play in which the ball crawled on the net to force a fifth set.
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