Rochester volleyball roundup: Honkomp gets 28 digs, but Lady Zs fall to Whitko in 4
Sharp serving marks Lady Zs’ win over Winamac on senior night
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Volleyball
Whitko def. Rochester, 21-25, 27-25, 25-21, 25-18 (Oct. 8): Logyn Honkomp had 28 digs, and Makayla Walley had 28 serves received, but the Rochester volleyball team lost in four sets to host Whitko Oct. 8 to finish Three Rivers Conference play 5-4.
Amara Wieringa led the Lady Zs with 15 kills, and Brailyn Hunter had 11.
Walley had four aces, and Emma Mathias had two.
Sylvia McCall had three blocks.
In addition to Honkomp, Wieringa and Mathias had 18 digs each, Walley had 15, and Aubrey Wilson had 10.
Wilson also had 38 assists.
Honkomp added 19 serves received, and Mathias had 10.
Senior Alexa Culp had 20 kills for Whitko.
Whitko has beaten Rochester in four of the last five years. Whitko is 17-10, 4-5 TRC.
Whitko def. Rochester, 21-25, 27-25, 25-21, 25-18
ROCHESTER STATS
Makayla Walley – 7 kills, 4 aces, 15 digs, 1 assist, 28 serves received; Emma Mathias – 1 kill, 2 aces, 18 digs, 2 assists, 10 serves received; Adalyn Gonzalez – 6 kills, 5 digs, 8 serves received; Aubrey Wilson – 3 kills, 1 block, 10 digs, 38 assists; Sylvia McCall – 5 kills, 3 blocks, 3 digs; Brailyn Hunter – 11 kills, 5 digs, 1 serve received; Amara Wieringa – 15 kills, 18 digs, 1 serve received; Logyn Honkomp – 28 digs, 1 assist, 19 serves received; Rilyn Strasser – 6 digs, 1 assist, 9 serves received
Rochester sweeps Winamac on senior night
Freshman Makayla Walley had 10 kills, and seniors Logyn Honkomp, Aubrey Wilson and Brailyn Hunter combined for nine of Rochester’s 10 aces in a 25-23, 25-19, 25-10 win over Winamac on senior night at the RHS gym Oct. 1.
Ava Malchow had 19 of Winamac’s 27 kills as a team, but Rochester’s attacks were more diversely distributed. Seven different players had at least one kill, including one from senior Jenna Seuferer on match point.
Besides Honkomp, Wilson, Hunter and Seuferer, other seniors included Kyra Doran, KayLea McCarty and Rilyn Strasser.
Honkomp finished with five aces, 13 digs and 20 serves received. Wilson had 23 assists. McCarty had six digs and five serves received in a rare start.
“I always say volleyball is not that deep,” coach Laneia Strasser said. “You wanted it to be just fun. These girls have all played volleyball together since they were itty bitty. So you know, it’s a special group of girls to everybody, and it was just fun for them to all play together and get that win together.”
Rochester trailed 21-16 in the first set before closing on a 9-2 run. They were up 20-18 in Set 2 before finishing on a 5-1 run. And they were up 15-10 in the third set before ending on a 10-0 run.
In the first set, Rilyn Strasser, not known for her offense, triggered the first set comeback with a left-handed cross-court kill. A Winamac ding dong play made it 21-19 before Malchow responded with a kill.
But Abbie Keller was called for a lift, and Honkomp had a service winner. Walley hammered down a kill to make it 22-22 and force a Winamac timeout.
A Jordan Compton kill error gave Rochester their first lead in the set since it was 2-1. A Wilson dump along the sidelines gave Rochester a set point.
Malchow turned away one set point before Seuferer went deep from the opposite side for the set-ending kill.
The final run in the second set started with an out-of-system set from freshman Kinley McKee to Amara Wieringa for a roll shot kill to the center of the floor. Another roll shot from Walley made it 22-18.
A Grace Roth kill from the outside off the Lady Z block cut the lead to three, but Walley answered with a lefty tip on a play that included three digs from Kylie Fisher. A Malchow back row kill error with McKee serving got it to set point, and a Gonzalez tip closed out the set.
The match-ending run in Set 3 included two aces from Honkomp and a service winner as well as two Gonzalez roll shots and a flying tip after an off-balance out-of-system set from Seuferer. A Walley tip and a Seuferer kill on an overpass closed out the match.
“It meant a lot to me,” Seuferer said of winning her final home regular season match. “I love playing with these girls. They’re just so fun, and I’m so glad we got to do it all together.”
Rochester finished with 10 aces as compared to Winamac’s four.
First-year Winamac coach Kayley Kasten called her team’s passing “not very good.”
“We were just on our heels,” Kasten said. “We didn’t read the ball very well, and then, when we were passing decent against their hitting at first, and then they started tipping and mixing up their shots, and we just kinda fell to our heels.”
Meanwhile, Rochester kept the pressure on with their serving, according to coach Strasser. Coach Strasser also mentioned that the Lady Zs had no more than two service errors.
“I think our serve pressure was very intense,” coach Strasser said. “It definitely got better as the match went on as well. Something we’ve talked about, it was nice to execute tonight.”
Kasten was asked if the match would have turned out differently if Winamac had won the first set. She later said she wants her team’s “intensity level” to pick up with sectionals starting in the next two weeks.
“I felt like we competed the first two sets, and then we lost our energy the third set,” Kasten said.
Maggie Keller led the Winamac defense with 21 digs and 17 serves received. Roth had 10 digs and 13 serves received to go along with her six kills. Malchow had 12 serves received. Abby Keller had 22 assists.
Rochester def. Winamac 25-23, 25-19, 25-10
ROCHESTER STATS
Makayla Walley – 10 kills, 1 block, 5 digs; Adalyn Gonzalez – 6 kills, 1 ace, 1 dig; Rilyn Strasser – 1 kill, 2 digs, 5 serves received; Aubrey Wilson – 3 kills, 3 aces, 1 block, 9 digs, 23 assists; Brailyn Hunter – 6 kills, 1 ace, 3 digs, 3 serves received; Amara Wieringa – 4 kills, 1 dig; Jenna Seuferer – 2 kills, 2 blocks, 1 assist; Logyn Honkomp – 5 aces, 13 digs, 1 assist, 20 serves received; Kyra Doran – 2 blocks, 1 dig; Emma Mathias – 14 digs, 8 serves received; Lyla Bowers – 3 digs, 2 serves received; Kinley McKee – 1 dig, 1 assist; KayLea McCarty – 6 digs, 5 serves received
WINAMAC STATS
Ava Malchow – 19 kills, 1 block, 7 digs, 12 serves received; Grace Roth – 6 kills, 2 aces, 10 digs, 13 serves received; Jordyn Hounchell – 1 kill, 1 block, 1 assist; Kylie Fisher – 1 kill, 4 digs, 1 assist, 13 serves received; Maggie Keller – 2 aces, 21 digs, 17 serves received; Abby Keller – 1 block, 3 digs, 22 assists; Jordan Compton – 2 digs, 5 serves received; Lillian Dell – 1 dig; Madison Jachim – 1 assist
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