Strasser praises defense in first set, but Rochester falls to Oak Hill in sectional semis
Quarterfinals: Rochester sweeps Peru behind balanced hitting
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Aubrey WIlson Adalyn Gonzalez Makayla Walley
Rochester volleyball coach Laneia Strasser praised her team’s defense in the first set of their Class 2A, Sectional 38 semifinal against Oak Hill at the RHS gym Saturday.
But a team can only do so much digging against a team with two ferocious hitters.
Morgan Cates finished with 20 kills, and Brianna Dailey added 18 as the Lady Golden Eagles earned a 25-20, 25-13, 25-16 win.
Oak Hill’s ability to terminate with the 6-1 Dailey and the 5-11 Cates set themse;lves apart. Oak Hill had a 45-24 advantage in kills.
There was also the advantage in service pressure. Oak Hill had 14 aces to Rochester’s three.
Makayla Walley led Rochester with nine kills, and Brailyn Hunter had eight in her final prep match.
Seniors Logyn Honkomp and Aubrey Wilson had five digs each, and Walley and Adalyn Gonzalez had four digs each.
Honkomp had 16 serves received, and Mathias had 14.
“I thought our defense was great,” Strasser said. “We went into the game knowing that there were going to be hits that you just can’t get a hand on because they’re good. But I thought the defense played well. Obviously, our block, we kept stressing you have to be quick to get out to Dailey and Cates, and we got a couple touches, but even if you are there on time, they’re just that much taller that they can take the ball out of the air so much higher, and so it was hard for your block to be blamed on some of those.
“But I thought our defense played great. Obviously, (we) came up short, but I think we said Set 1 was probably the best set we think they’ve played all year together. … It just was all clicking. The hits were smart. It just all clicked at one time.”
Wilson also led with 22 assists and finished her career with 2,066.
Rochester trailed 17-13 at one point in the first set but scored four straight points to tie thanks to a Kora Weller service error and three straight hitting errors.
The set would stay tied at 18 and at 19.
Oak Hill then closed on a 6-1 run. London Frank had two aces and also an assist to Dailey, a Butler commit, for a kill.
A Walley kill made it 23-20, but a Dailey kill and a Cali Myers ace closed out the set.
Oak Hill then opened the second set on a 12-3 run. Dailey opened the set with back-to-back kills, and Weller also three serves during a serving run.
Rochester would score three straight points to get within 13-7 thanks to kills from Wieringa and Walley and a Cates net violation, but a Cates stuff block and a Cates clean ace on the baseline squelched the momentum.
Oak Hill went on a 9-1 run in Set 3 to open up a 15-6 lead.
Fighting until the end, Rochester fended off the first six match points before Oak Hill closed it out.
“My biggest concern was they don’t miss serves,” Oak Hill coach Kerri Barcomb said of the Lady Zs. “They play so very well. They play very smart. I think their setter (Aubrey Wilson), who is also a basketball player, is absolutely amazing. So I knew that she could take control of the game. So I was worried about those things, so I knew that we had to come out, and we had to play clean and be aggressive from the get-go.”
Rochester finished 19-12 and with their first winning record since 2020. They had 19 wins in the previous two years combined.
However, they have not won a sectional since 2020, and the six-year drought is their longest since the start of class volleyball in the fall of 1998.
“I think our program is in great shape,” Strasser said. “I think you can’t look at that game and think, oh, it’s the lack of our program. Oak Hill is tall. I can’t grow somebody taller. If tall girls would move here, that would be great, or if middle school kids would just get way taller once they come across the parking lot, that would be great, but I think as a program, our program’s in great shape. We utilize youth club. A lot of our high school girls are playing club. I think we’re in a good spot.”
In addition to Honkomp, Hunter and Wilson, other seniors included Kyra Doran, Rilyn Strasser, KayLea McCarty and Jenna Seuferer.
“It’s huge,” coach Strasser said of their contribution. “It’s a good graduating class. They’re a great group of girls. They all work hard. They’ve all played together since they were little. They’re competitive. And that’s not something you can teach; that’s just something they all are. We’re going to miss all of them tremendously. That’s a big class to graduate. To say that the effects of that aren’t going to felt would be a lie, but we do have a huge amount of talent sitting on our bench and in our gym.”
The Oak Hill bench erupted in joy in the third set when libero Lilly Edwards got her 1,000th career dig.
In the other semifinal, Eastern (Greentown) took down Maconaquah 25-21, 23-25, 25-22, 25-17.
Oak Hill then went on to beat Eastern 25-16, 25-19, 25-23 to win their first sectional title since 2008.
Oak Hill will play Lapel in a regional at Elwood at 4 p.m. this Saturday.
Semifinal: Oak Hill def. Rochester, 25-20, 25-13, 25-16
Rochester stats
Makayla Walley – 9 kills,1 ace, 4 digs, 7 serves received; Adalyn Gonzalez – 2 kills, 4 digs; Aubrey Wilson – 2 kills, 5 digs, 22 assists; Brailyn Hunter – 8 kills, 1 ace, 3 digs, 1 assist; Amara Wieringa – 3 kills, 1 ace, 3 digs, 5 serves received; Logyn Honkomp – 5 digs, 16 serves received; Emma Mathias – 3 digs, 1 assist, 14 serves received; Rilyn Strasser – 3 digs, 8 serves received; Sylvia McCall – 1 dig
Rochester relies on balanced hitting to beat Peru
Makayla Walley had eight kills and 14 digs, and the Rochester volleyball team relied on a diversified offense to beat Peru 25-16, 25-22, 25-16 in a Class 2A, Sectional 38 quarterfinal at the RHS gym Oct. 15.
Sylvia McCall and Amara Wieringa added seven kills each, Brailyn Hunter had six kills, and Adalyn Gonzalez had five. Wieringa also had four of the Lady Zs’ eight aces.
Aubrey Wilson had three kills and three blocks to go with her 28 assists.
Senior libero Logyn Honkomp had 12 digs and a team-high 25 serves received.
Emma Mathias had 10 digs and also led with 12 service points.
“I think to set the tone right from the get-go is something that we’ve talked about all season,” Rochester coach Laneia Strasser said. “And they did it tonight. We got the home court advantage, and to get to the first five points is important in a match, and I think it led us throughout the rest of the next three sets.”
Rochester also beat Peru in four sets at Peru in their regular season meeting.
In the second set, Rochester built a 14-8 lead, but Peru got back within 22-20 and 24-22 before Gonzalez ended the set with a kill of the block.
“I think we had a lot more energy this game, and we were way more confident, and we’ve had more experience to play together as a team, I guess,” Gonzalez said when asked to compare the first meeting with Peru with this meeting. “I think we were more excited with each other, celebrating each other, when good things happened on the court.”
The third set was tied at 5 before Rochester went on a 14-1 run to take a 19-6 lead. A Wieringa kill got them to the finish line with an 18-12 record and got them a semifinal meeting with Oak Hill, who received a bye.
The win was Rochester’s first in a sectional match since 2022. They have not won a sectional title since 2020.
Rochester had to deal with middle hitters Alivia Ross and Hayleigh Renn, both listed at 5-9 and known for their blocking.
“We work a lot on that in practice is hitting around the block,” coach Strasser said. “Being smart with where you hit, knowing where to crank, knowing where to use that block. And I think we did a good job of that tonight.”
Quarterfinal: Rochester def. Peru, 25-16, 25-22, 25-16
Rochester stats
Makayla Walley – 8 kills, 1 ace, 2 blocks, 14 digs, 1 assist, 8 serves received; Adalyn Gonzalez – 5 kills, 1 block, 2 digs, 2 serves received; Aubrey Wilson – 3 kills, 1 ace, 3 blocks, 5 digs, 28 assists; Sylvia McCall – 7 kills, 2 blocks, 3 digs, 1 serve received; Brailyn Hunter – 6 kills, 2 blocks, 2 digs; Amara Wieringa – 7 kills, 4 aces, 1 block, 2 digs, 1 serve received; Logyn Honkomp – 1 ace, 12 digs, 25 serves received; Emma Mathias – 1 ace, 10 digs, 3 serves received; Rilyn Strasser – 8 digs, 5 serves received
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