Monroeville swept by Mohawk in state-ranked battle

SYCAMORE — Lesson learned. Monroeville coach Kendra Snook wanted to see her team face the challenge of another state-ranked team and improve. How the Eagles handle things from Saturday will be shown over the coming weeks. The Eagles — ranked No. 8 in the Division VI state coaches poll — had a lead in each set. But Div. VII No. 3-ranked Mohawk came from behind each time and topped the Eagles in the matchup of unbeaten teams. The Warriors (19-0) posted scores of 25-18, 25-21 and 25-21. "If we play to 15, we win all three sets," Snook said. "We started off strong in all three sets, which is a good thing because sometimes we start off slow and finish strong. We just couldn't finish today. "They have a great team and we were out of system quite a bit. When we're out of system and giving them some easier balls, they're going to put the pressure on us." The Warriors led early before Monroeville got things going. The Eagles (18-1) scored three straight points to go up 16-10, but Mohawk battled back. Two errors by the Eagles and kills by Jayla Huffman and Aubrey Gottfried brought Mohawk within 16-15. Monroeville still led 18-17, but the Warriors finished the set strong. Chloe Miller lined a pair of kills around a Monroeville error. A block by Biz Klopp then forced a timeout by the Eagles. Monroeville hit a ball out of bounds and Klopp tallied a kill to bring up another timeout. That did little to slow the Warriors, as Emerson Gurney served up an ace, Klopp tallied a block, and a net violation by Monroeville gave the Warriors the first set. "We did make a huge run there at the end," Mohawk coach Eric Hoover said. "Emerson was doing a great job keeping them out of their offense with her serve. She had a really good serve that was moving on them. She found some seams and made it difficult on them. We got a bunch of good attacks in there." Set 2 played out in a rather similar flow. Monroeville jumped out to a 10-6 advantage after consecutive kills by Alexa Adams. The Eagles then expanded the lead as big as 15-9 after a kill by Madi Reiber. But again, the Warriors came roaring back. Four straight points on three kills by Klopp and an ace by Averie Barth cut the deficit to two points. Riley Platte put down a kill for Monroeville out of a timeout to keep the Eagles up 16-13, but Mohawk kept surging. Klopp had a pair of kills and Allison Russell registered an ace to tie the set. It was also tied at 18 before Mohawk pulled away. Trenna Johnson's block put the Warriors up for good. It was just 21-20 when Miller lined back-to-back kills. After a Monroeville timeout, Klopp blasted two more kills to win the set. Klopp had eight kills in Mohawk's last 16 points of the set. "I think our block got a lot of touches on Klopp," Snook said. "The goal today was we weren't going to stop her. We wanted to control her a little bit. "Obviously, she had quite a few kills, but what doesn't go into the stats is we did put our hands on a lot of balls, too, and dug around her. We made her hit some shots." Monroeville's biggest lead in Set 3 wasn't quite as big. The teams played pretty close over the first part of the set before the Eagles went up 10-7 on an ace by Alexa Adams and still had that margin at 15-12 following an Adams kill. Mohawk chipped away and stayed close. The Warriors tied the set twice, but Monroeville was still up 21-19 late in the set. Like it did earlier, Mohawk finished a set strong, this time the final six points of the set and match. Klopp tallied a pair of kills to tie the set at 21. A net violation on the Eagles brought on a timeout before Miller registered a kill. After another timeout, Klopp put down the last of her kills and a hitting error by Monroeville ended the match. "We stayed calm and found a way to come back and get the lead," Hoover said. "I think we were down in every set and kept chipping away. We found a way to work back and get the lead. "I would've liked a little more sense of urgency to get it a little sooner and make it a little easier on my blood pressure. But we stayed calm and found a way to win tough rallies." Klopp led Mohawk with 19 kills and Miller added 13 kills. Caitlin Ogg ran the offense to the tune of 36 assists while nabbing 11 digs. Russell paced the Warriors' defense with 17 digs while Gurney added 12 digs. "They're a very good program," Hoover said. "Kendra does a great job with them. We've been playing for a long time, at least 10 years. There's been some outstanding matches going back and forth. It's great this time of the year too because of the preparation for the tournament." Alexa Adams topped Monroeville with 10 kills, six digs, and two aces while Ady Adams added 10 digs and seven kills. Also for the Eagles, Reiber contributed 11 digs, six kills, and two aces, Platte had six kills, Taryn Tyler had four kills and two aces, Addison Lyons registered 19 assists and two aces, and Addison Homan had 16 digs. Kaci Poths added 15 assists for Monroeville. "I think both the first set and second set we just had some bad spurts," Snook said. "We were up in both of those two sets and we got in a bad rotation. It just happened to be in different rotations, so it wasn't just one spot. "We want to cut those runs down. One or two is OK, but after that, we have to make sure we're getting the ball back." The Eagles are 12-0 in the Firelands Conference and have a chance to clinch an outright title Tuesday when it hosts St. Paul (14-6, 10-2). Junior varsity action starts at 6 p.m. "We don't usually see each other in the tournament, even if we're in the same division," Snook said of facing Mohawk. "I think it's a positive experience for both teams to be able to play a competitive match on a Saturday. "Lately we haven't been able to beat them at all, but hopefully we're going to learn a little bit. You either win or you learn. Hopefully today we learned a little bit."