Margaretta sweeps Port Clinton

CASTALIA — For Margaretta, the theme of the night was getting off to a fast start. Behind some timely serving and a blocking presence at the net, the Polar Bears swept visiting Port Clinton by scores of 25-20, 25-20, 25-15. "We have been working hard mentally and once we get out to fast start, we got to stay up," Margaretta coach Sarah Kuns said. "All this season we have gotten down early and then had to dig ourselves out of a hole. "Tonight, I think we capitalized on the fast starts and that gave us confidence." In the first set, Margaretta and the Redskins went back and forth. After Port Clinton tied the match at 10, the Polar Bears used a 6-1 scoring run to take a 16-11 lead. The theme of the run and the whole match was service line. After building that lead, Margaretta closed out the set en route to a 25-20 win.Too many reception mistakes cost the Redskins in the second set. Margaretta jumped out to a 6-1 lead behind the serving from Renna Keller. In the first six points, two were aces and the other four resulted in reception errors. The hot hand from the service line resulted in a 12-2 Margaretta lead. The Redskins fought back after trailing 22-12 to pull within 22-18 but the Bears won the set 25-20."We gave them way too many free points tonight," PC coach Kent Felbinger said. "We had a habit of giving away too many free balls. I think the service line all night put us in a hole and you cannot have that in a matchup like this." Port Clinton showed some fight in the third set taking the first three points. An unforced error gave Margaretta its first point of the set and the Bears would ride the momentum to an 8-3 lead. The Bears' lead swelled to 20-5 before they ended the sweep with a 25-15 set win. "Since Day 1, we have focused on the service line," Kuns said. "We have missed our fair share this season, but this team is very young. Once we got confidence we fed off a very good student section."The Bears were led by senior Kenadie Saylor who had a double-double of 10 kills and 14 digs. Tarah Hershey and Ella Limberios had 14 and 11 digs, respectively. Margaretta (3-6, 1-1 SBC Bay) turns its focus to a home matchup against Genoa on Monday while Port Clinton (1-6, 0-2) gets ready for a trip to Willard next Thursday. "We will take this momentum into hopefully to solid practices and go from there," Kuns said. "Hopefully this win will give us confidence going into the crucial part of season."