Hemminger, Durst lead Clyde sweep of Huron

HURON — DeLani Durst wants to play like she's 6-foot-2. The senior is really just 5-4, but from the block she laid for Clyde against Huron to end the second set, you wouldn't have been able to tell. "It felt amazing," Durst said. "I knew my girls behind me were set up where they needed to be. They also trust me to help out in the front row a little bit even though I'm pretty short." Durst tallied 25 assists and her block secured a decisive second set for the Fliers, leading Clyde to a 26-24, 25-12, 25-21 sweep of the Tigers on Tuesday night. "We toyed around at the beginning of the season of a 6-2 (offense), but ultimately, I've coached her since her freshman year and I feel like there's a trust," Clyde coach Shelley Rogers said. "I know in her mind, she's 6-2 in her brain. She'll go up. She has a great sports sense and she reads everything really well. She just puts it all out there." Durst is more well known for her setting for Clyde (7-3). She's got more than 2,200 assists for her career. But, she does a little bit of everything for the Fliers. The win was also the first for her — and the other Clyde seniors — over Huron as high schoolers. "We haven't beaten Huron as a varsity team in years," Durst said. "It feels amazing, especially in this gym. To play against (Huron coach) Don Wood is amazing." Wood was taken aback by the lopsided loss after his Tigers were ultra-competitive at the Lancer Invite hosted by Gilmour Academy on Saturday, going 2-1 including a win over a state-ranked Kenston squad. "I'm really disappointed in our mental state," Wood said. "It was not an approach I would expect from this group at this point in time. I was really hoping to take a step forward after Saturday's performance, and I feel like we're back to square one after the way we did things tonight." Things were going well for the Tigers (4-6) late in Set 1 before things fell apart. Clyde led 9-4 after a Kelsey Ray kill, but Huron played well in bunches to not only get back in the set, but take the lead. Four straight points including an ace by Jada Foster gave Huron an 18-16 lead. Later, another run of four straight put the Tigers up 23-18. Clyde roared back. Brooklyn Hemminger smacked two kills to help the Fliers tie the set at 24. Durst then served up an ace, and a kill from Lily Ball finished off the 8-1 Clyde run to win Set 1. "That was huge," Rogers said. "Historically when we come down close like that, we have a problem with finishing it and I have to play catch-up during the next set. Today we really put it all out there. I think they were ready to go." The Fliers carried that momentum into Set 2. Durst tallied another ace and Hemminger bludgeoned a kill as Clyde won the first four points. After a kill by Foster for Huron, Hemminger and Ray each registered kills for a 7-1 lead. Clyde could seemingly do no wrong and strung together points to eventually go up 15-3 after an ace by Ray. A kill by Lauren Harrah and the block by Durst gave the Fliers a stranglehold on the match. "We did a really good job today of being patient on the block," Rogers said. "We have some new girls in the middle. Brooklyn Hemminger, this is her first time in the middle. We kind of threw her in there. We graduated Cora Liskai and Brenna Caudill, so we had some pretty large shoes to fit." Huron played significantly better in Set 3, racing out to a 9-3 lead — capped by an ace by CC Rice and kill from Cami Adams. This time, Clyde had to put small runs together to put the match away. The Fliers were balanced, too, getting big hits from a multitude of players. Kills from Miley Glass and Annmarie Davis fueled the start of a 9-0 run by Clyde. The lead reached 20-13 after a kill by Lily Ball, but Huron didn't go quietly. Azure Waldock put down three kills and a block to help the Tigers draw within a few points. Ahead 23-21, Harrah lined back-to-back kills to finish off the win for Clyde. "They play great defense," said Wood of the Fliers. "They were scrappy as heck. DeLani makes good decisions over there and she has good experience. We had zero aggressiveness swinging. When you have more errors than kills, that's not a good thing as a team." Waldock paced Huron with nine kills on 24-of-26 hitting with four blocks while Reece Hotz was 10-of-10 serving with two aces, 68-of-68 setting with 14 assists and added 12 digs. Adelyn Van Sickle led the defense with 17 digs and Maggie Orzech had five kills. The Tigers are back in Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division play Thursday when they host Edison. Huron hosts Bellevue on Saturday. "I would like to see a little bit of discipline," Wood said. "Everything went out of the window tonight. We'll sleep on it and get back at it tomorrow and see what they really want out of this because tonight was backwards. Not good." Durst added 12 digs and two aces for Clyde, Hemminger lined 11 kills and two aces, and Miley Glass had a team-high 16 digs. Lucy Glass contributed nine digs and two aces, Lily Ball had five kills and three digs and Harrah had five kills, three digs, and two blocks. The Fliers travel to Norwalk on Thursday in a massive SBC Lake contest. "I was really impressed," said Rogers of her team. "I was a little nervous because practice yesterday didn't go as we wanted. Our favorite fan told us 'bad practice, great games.' Apparently, it turned out that way."