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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
From when it fell behind 13-3 in the second set of their match with visiting Triton Monday to when it got within 22-18, the Rochester volleyball team showed increasing promise, according to coach Laneia Strasser.
However, a Triton team that boasts five seniors as compared to Rochester’s one and more height than the block full of Chicago skyscrapers earned a 25-12, 25-18, 25-10 win.
Audrey Bolinger had five kills, four points, two aces and seven digs. Freshman Brailyn Hunter had three kills. Rylee Clevenger had seven digs and 11 serves received, and freshman Logyn Honkomp had five digs and 22 serves received. Freshman setter Aubrey Wilson had four points, an ace, four digs and a team-high seven assists.
Darah Strasser also had six digs.
Rochester fell to 1-6.
Addyson Viers had 14 kills, and Mya Davis had six for the Lady Trojans (2-1). Viers also had four aces. Sophomore libero Sierra Hawley had a team-high 13 digs while Jenna Bules had seven and Lena Doll had six. Hannah Snyder had 22 assists. Bules and Doll had nine serves received each.
Triton jumped out to an 11-2 lead to start the match, fueled by the hitting and blocking from Viers and Davis, a left-handed-swinging middle hitter. The set ended with a Viers kill and a Viers ace.
The rally in the second set started with back-to-back Bolinger aces and a freshman-to-freshman-to-freshman point – digger Honkomp to setter Wilson to hitter Hunter.
After a Bolinger kill and Bolinger smothering a Triton overpass, the lead was down to 19-15.
A Hunter kill and a Triton double hit eventually kept Rochester within 22-18 before Triton won the last three points.
Rochester took a 4-2 lead in the third set thanks to a Bolinger kill and a Honkomp service winner, but a 10-1 Triton run later in the set made it 15-6 as Triton front row players like Viers, Davis and Macie Hensley towered over Rochester, who was missing junior outside hitter Lillee Lett for the sixth straight match due to a right knee injury.
“They work so hard,” Rochester first-year coach Laneia Strasser said of her players. “We’ve made huge improvements with our serve-receive in set two. I guess set three would probably be a very disappointing part of tonight because set one and set two were so promising. Yet again, it’s that experience thing, being able to put together three sets to 25.”
Strasser said she is urging her team to be aggressive.
“Serve-receive, attacking and getting them out of system,” coach Strasser said when asked what went well during that period in the second set. “I say to the girls all the time, ‘The more we attack hard, the more out of system they’re going to be.’ So they’re not going to get those 10-foot-line hits on us.”
Rochester also utilized more back row attacks, even from the 5-3 libero Honkomp.
“I always tell them, ‘Don’t underestimate the back row,’” Strasser said.
Triton also won the JV match 25-15, 25-13.
Triton def. Rochester, 25-12, 25-18, 25-10
Rochester stats
Brailyn Hunter – 3 kills, 2 digs, 1 serve received; Ella Hake – 1 kill, 2 digs; Darah Strasser – 1 kill, 6 digs, 10 serves received; Aubrey Wilson – 1 kill, 1 ace, 4 digs, 7 assists; Audrey Bolinger – 5 kills, 2 aces, 7 digs, 1 assist, 11 serves received; Logyn Honkomp – 5 digs, 24 serves received; Rylee Clevenger – 7 digs, 11 serves received; Mia Howdeshell – 1 dig; Keyton Doran – 1 dig, 1 serve received
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