With their ‘Boots’ on: Valley rallies with final 7 points, stuns Rochester in 5
Costello: 20 kills, 16 digs, 18 serves received
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
AKRON — Tippecanoe Valley volleyball coach Jon Hutton has called his team’s season a “roller coaster.”
The roller coaster got on the right track just at the right time against visiting Rochester in the final home match of the season as Valley came back to stun the Lady Zs 22-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-14, 15-13 at Rita Price Simpson Court Oct. 5.
Valley improved to 15-16 overall and 3-1 in five-set matches. Valley had lost a best-of-three match to Rochester at the Tomahawk Invitational at North Miami Aug. 22.
Valley has not lost a best-of-five match to Rochester since 2020. They pulled this out after trailing 12-5 in the fifth set. They still trailed 13-8 before closing out the match by winning the final seven points.
Malaynie Costello led Valley with 20 kills, and Alayna Parker and Hadley Wise had 14 kills each. Wise also had 29 digs and 25 serves received. Kylie Cunningham had five aces.
Libero Bella Parker had a team-high 39 digs and added 23 serves received. Costello had 16 digs and 18 serves received.
Senior setter Lillian Dunbar had 52 assists and 21 digs.
Brailyn Hunter led the Lady Zs with 17 kills while adding 11 digs. Makayla Walley had 11 kills, and Adalyn Gonzalez had 10. Walley also had four aces.
Logyn Honkomp had 21 digs and 30 serves received. Amara Wierings had 15 digs and 20 serves received to go with her seven kills. Her most memorable dig was a pancake in the fifth set that led to a Kinley McKee kill that put Rochester ahead 6-3 in the fifth set.
Aubrey Wilson had 40 assists and 18 digs. Emma Mathias had 13 digs and 15 serves received. Rilyn Strasser had 11 digs.
Senior setter Lillian Dunbar had the fairy tale ending behind the service line.
It started with a Rochester ding dong play to make it 13-9. A Malaynie Costello kill made it 13-10.
Dunbar later called Costello “one of the best hitters I’ve ever seen.”
Rochester called their first timeout.
Brailyn Hunter’s kill error into the net to end a marathon point made it 13-11. An Adalyn Gonzalez kill error into the net made it 13-12.
Rochester called their final timeout.
A Bailey Anderson kill on a Rochester overpass made it 13-13. An Alayna Parker kill that deflected off Emma Mathias got Valley to match point. A Gonzalez kill error into the net ended it.
“I definitely thought we could win,” Dunbar said. “I thought if we just kept our serves in and kept them out of system so they weren’t getting good sets to their hitters, then we could pick it up, and I could get good sets to my hitters, and we could just crush them.”
Hutton said he reminded his team during a timeout in the fifth set that what has gotten them this far was their fearlessness. He said he wants the team to “lock in” that fearlessness as they get ready for tonight’s Class 3A, Sectional 20 quarterfinal against Columbia City at West Noble.
“Making a couple small changes on who was playing where, but really, it was about the idea of just encouraging them to play with that utter lack of regard of, you know, we’re not going to roll, we’re going to go swing,” Hutton said. “Because that’s where we’re best. And it’s when we start doing it a different way that we’re less. And so that was just a great moment for us.”
Hutton had high praise for Costello, nicknamed “Boots.”
“I think one of the big things ‘Boots’ had that – I’m not sure where in that run that was – but she had the one where she bounced it about 10, 12 feet, that split seam between the outside and the middle, and that really kind of got us going. That was a lot of her. That’s not a me thing; that’s her.”
Rochester coach Laneia Strasser said her team stopped playing aggressively.
“We started tipping and playing to not lose,” coach Strasser said. “I don’t know. Can you point out just one part of that? The mental side. You know, our passes started to get sloppier. We started to tip more. We just didn’t attack. And we didn’t serve aggressively enough when we had the ball to do so.”
Strasser also did not like the way the team responded after they won Set 3.
“They did the exact opposite of what I told them to,” coach Strasser said. “I told them to go out there and dominate and don’t let them stick around for Set 5. Go out there, overtalk, play to win, and we didn’t do that. They gave up. They walked out there, and they acted flat, and they didn’t talk, and that’s exactly how they played.”
Said a reflective Dunbar: “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs. We’ve struggled to get going in the sets. We get down a lot and struggle to come back from that, but if we start up, we usually do well.”
Rochester won the JV match 27-25, 25-15.
Tippecanoe Valley def. Rochester, 22-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-14, 15-13
VALLEY STATS
Alayna Parker – 14 kills, 1 ace, 8 digs, 1 assist, 8 serves received; Kinley Crabb – 5 kills, 4 blocks, 1 assist, 1 serve received; Hadley Wise – 14 kills, 2 aces, 29 digs, 2 assists, 25 serves received; Bailey Anderson – 5 kills, 4 blocks, 3 digs; Malaynie Costello – 20 kills, 1 ace, 16 digs, 18 serves received; Lillian Dunbar – 2 kills, 2 aces, 21 digs, 52 assists; Bella Newcomer – 1 ace, 4 digs, 11 serves received; Kylie Cunningham – 4 aces; Unidentified Player No. 1 – 7 digs, 2 serves received; Bella Parker – 39 digs, 3 assists, 23 serves received
ROCHESTER STATS
Makayla Walley – 11 kills, 4 aces, 2 blocks, 8 digs, 3 assists, 9 serves received; Adalyn Gonzalez – 10 kills, 5 digs, 7 serves received; Aubrey Wilson – 6 kills, 1 ace, 2 blocks, 18 digs, 40 assists; Kinley McKee – 4 kills, 5 digs; Brailyn Hunter – 17 kills, 11 digs; Amara Wieringa – 7 kills, 1 ace, 15 digs, 20 serves received; Emma Mathias – 1 ace, 13 digs, 15 serves received; Logyn Honkomp – 21 digs, 2 assists, 30 serves received; Rilyn Strasser – 11 digs, 2 assists, 8 serves received
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