Huron hitters deliver in sweep of Perkins

HURON — Huron's hitters were on target. The Tigers limited their errors Thursday and put constant pressure on Perkins to post a 25-17, 25-15, 25-19 victory in a matchup of two of the best teams in the area. "We limited our attacking errors. I'm very pleased with that," Huron coach Don Wood said. "Hitters are making good decisions. We had seven hitting errors and I think three of them came in a row in the third set. Hitters did a nice job being aggressive yet keeping the ball in play." The win was the ninth straight for Huron, which is 15-3 and ranked No. 6 in the state in Division V. Perkins is 14-4 after dropping its third straight match. "I'd be delusional to think we were gonna walk into Huron's gym and push them around," Perkins coach Brandon Duvall said. "We're capable of doing it; I think we have the players who could do it. But unfortunately we're still, in my opinion, at the stage of building this program when see 'Huron' on the chest it comes with a lot of respect and earned notoriety, and when you see 'Perkins' it's not quite there." A Reece Hotz ace gave Huron a 16-9 lead in the first set and a Jada Foster slide kill made it 22-15. Mya Smith had her first two kills of the night to put away the first set. Huron had four aces in the first set (nine overall) and never trailed at any point in the match. "I thought we served well," Wood said. "We're not blistering the ball when we serve, we're just hitting spots, trying to take hitters out. It's about placement for us." Huron started the second set on a 4-0 run and made it 10-2 when Lizzie Perin slammed a kill to finish a long point. Perkins got within 20-15 on a kill by freshman Reese Schaefer but Huron responded and made it 2-0 on a Riley Harkelroad ace. Huron led 9-1 in the third set on a Perin kill before Perkins made a game of it. Two Schaefer kills jump-started a 6-0 run and Bria Hector's kill cut Huron's lead to 11-10. "They had a nice streak. They were serving aggressively and got us out of system," Wood said. "They did some good things and I'd really like to see us get that changed quicker. That's not sustainable for us to be successful." A Foster kill ended the run and Huron rattled off six straight points — the last two on Rylie Dehn aces — to take control. Foster, who led the Tigers with 12 kills, delivered two rockets to end the match. "It's definitely very empowering," said Foster about hitting hard. "I just love volleyball. It's a very fun sport. I love my team, I love my coach. It's a very healthy community." Added Wood: "She does get her money's worth, and the times she might have an error, it's because she's not getting her money's worth, trying to tip or do a shot that's not in her wheelhouse. She had a great game — 12 kills and only three errors. That's solid. Mya did a nice job with 10 kills and no errors." Hotz finished with 28 assists and four solo blocks. Adelyn Van Sickle had 13 digs and Harkelroad added 11. "It's a really big game, no matter what both of our seasons look like," Foster said. "We always come out and play super hard in this game — Perkins and us. It was a really big accomplishment to beat them." Huron hosts Division I Perrysburg on Saturday before a rematch at Bellevue on Tuesday. A second win against the Lady Red would clinch the Northern Ohio Conference Bay Division title outright. "Perrysburg's gonna be a tall order, and having to go over to Bellevue, that's gonna be tough," Wood said. "They're playing well right now. They're staying under the radar; a lot of people aren't really noticing what's going on. They're doing a great job." Perkins got 11 kills, five digs and two aces from Viera Walker. Schaefer added 10 kills and Davie had 18 assists and eight digs. The Pirates can clinch no worse than a tie for the NOC Lake title with wins Tuesday at Clyde and Thursday against Columbian. "I'm not very happy with the way we've been competing lately, this one a little better than maybe the last two (losses to Ross and Norwalk), but we couldn't find any rhythm and build any confidence and that's 100 percent due to Huron not letting us do it," Duvall said. "We can feel sorry for ourselves, but at the end of the day we're 14-4 and we have an opportunity to finish the job to tie for the NOC Lake. What a great position to be in without having one senior on the roster, only three juniors and a ton of sophomores and freshmen who are very talented."