Huron a perfect 4-0 on first day of Spiketacular

SANDUSKY — Summer volleyball can be about as intense as something you'd see in late September. Huron proved that on the first day of the Summer Spiketacular on Friday at Cedar Point Sports Center. The Tigers rallied for a 25-21, 23-25, 18-16 win over Division I Hilliard Darby to finish its first day of pool play with a 4-0 record. Huron trailed 15-14 in the third set before pulling ahead 16-15 on a Mya Smith kill. The Tigers then broke a 16-16 tie with kills by Addison Graham and Smith to clinch the victory. "Getting ourselves in these situations right now is perfect," Huron coach Don Wood said. "It shows we're not there yet. A good first day. Saw some teams we've never seen before. Saw some improvement and got to rotate a handful through that we need to look at." The Tigers, who return many familiar faces from last year's 14-10 team, also defeated Shaker Heights (25-6, 25-9), Stow (25-19, 26-28, 15-7) and Geneva (25-21, 25-17) in pool play, losing just two sets on the day. "We still have a whole heckuva lot of work to do," said Wood, who also is the tournament director. "I saw improvements in some areas. Serve receive is getting better, slowly but surely. We can still do a better job of heading off point runs against us. That will come with mental toughness." Huron was one of four teams in the National division to go 4-0 on Friday. The others were Mohawk, Austintown Fitch and Medina Highland, which didn't lose a set. One more round of pool play is scheduled for Saturday, followed by the finals. Four other area teams are competing at the event, the first of three girls Summer Spiketaculars this month at CPSC. Monroeville went 2-2 with wins against Jefferson Area (25-13, 25-19) and Uniontown Lake (29-27, 25-18). The Eagles dropped matches to Toledo Whitmer (25-16, 25-18) and a tall Nordonia squad (25-22, 25-20). "Overall I think the kids competed against some schools that are obviously a lot bigger than us, but we were able to hold our own in every match," Monroeville coach Kendra Snook said. "That was good. We just need to get a little more consistent but it's July, so that's OK." Perkins went 1-3 against a tough draw. The Pirates lost to Highland (25-17, 25-23), Whitmer (25-23, 22-25, 15-6) and Mohawk (25-14, 28-26) before defeating Sylvania Southview (25-23, 25-23). "We're just trying to figure out who can play where," said first-year coach Brandon Duvall. "We have a lot of multi-positional athletes. We've got some people missing today, so a little all over the place. I was happy with how we did. We try not to worry too much about the wins and losses, just how we're competing." Perkins will be led this season by seniors Ferrell Coleman and Micah Normington-Slay. "Micah's gonna be in the middle. The good news is either of them can play pin or middle," Duvall said. "We're gonna be able to move them around as we see fit, depending on the matchups. We're gonna see if we can move Ferrell to the outside permanently, but they're both so good in the middle together. As long as our passing holds up we'll have to see how we handle that." Clyde, which is replacing most of its starting lineup due to graduations, went 0-4. "We didn't come up with any wins, but new crew. Very young," Clyde coach Shelley Rogers said. "We have five big positions we need to fill. "I told them just because we didn't pull it out in the end doesn't mean we didn't show improvement from our first set to the last set we played. We had some close games. They struggled finishing." The Fliers have switched to a 6-2 offense with the graduation of All-SBC Lake setter DeLani Durst. Rogers is looking at Kelsey Ray and Keeli Kramer at setter. "They're doing really well," Rogers said. "They feel a lot of pressure, I'm sure, in trying to fill DeLani's spot."