Monroeville surges past Norwalk in 4

MONROEVILLE — On a night of special remembrance, Monroeville had an answer. After losing a long opening set, 28-26, to visiting Norwalk on Wednesday, the Eagles rebounded in strong fashion. State-ranked Monroeville won the next two sets, 25-19, 25-12, then fended off the Truckers in the fourth set for a 25-20 win inside the Monroeville Athletic Complex. With the win, the Eagles — ranked No. 8 in the second weekly Division VII state coaches poll — improved to 12-2 overall while the Truckers fell to 5-5. Monroeville had its yearly Wear Purple night in honor of the late Delaney Giles, who died at age 17 on Sept. 17, 2021, from injuries sustained in a car crash. "I thought all in all it was a great defensive match on both sides," Monroeville coach Kendra Snook said. "Norwalk plays relentless defense and nothing was dropping. The amount of one-hand digs going forward was incredible. Balls we thought were down weren't. "Our kids had to adjust, hold their composure and play just as good on defense," she added. "I thought in the second and third sets, we came out strong and got them out of system, which let us spread the ball out around all our hitters." The first set proved to be the highlight for both teams as far as lengthy, back-and-forth play. The Eagles trailed 20-17 after Norwalk surged ahead with four out of five points. But out of a timeout, the Eagles answered back and had squared things away at 23-23. From there, it was a classic trade of points by both teams, with the Truckers able to find enough hitting at the net from Ainlsee King and Maddie Gamble to close out the 28-26 win. In the second set, it was again mostly even throughout the first 12 points of the match. However, leading 11-9, the Eagles managed to reel off six of the next seven points to take control. Norwalk was able to to stave off set point twice, but a ball the Truckers touched that went out of bounds allowed the Eagles to even the match with a 25-19 win. The third set saw the Eagles race out to a quick 5-0 lead. But just as fast, the Truckers came back with five points of their own. King, Moehlman and Gamble each had kills and the Eagles had an unforced error and hit a ball out of bounds. But once a King lob went long out of bounds, the Eagles never trailed again in the set. Leading 8-6, Monroeville sent a ball over that Norwalk didn't return and Ady Adams helped serve out two more points to push the lead to 11-6. Norwalk then hit the ball to many times and a hit that sailed far out of bounds put the Eagles in control up 13-6. Gabby Loose stopped a brief Norwalk run to go up 15-7 and some miscommunication on the Norwalk side of the net pushed the lead out to 17-8. Leading 19-9, the Eagles were unable to stop Bella Hernandez at the net, but Norwalk promptly hit one into the net to cancel out the points. Monroeville put the set away from there, as Alexa Adams slammed down a kill right in the middle of the Norwalk defense to make it 22-11. After Moehlman answered for Norwalk, Alexa Adams again got one over a Norwalk block. Kaci Poths then had a serve graze the net that landed on the Norwalk side for an ace. Alexa Adams finished off the 25-12 win by lobbing the ball over two Norwalk defenders at the middle of the net. In the fourth set, the Eagles raced out to a 19-10 lead and things appeared to be playing out similar to the previous two sets. However, Norwalk did not go quietly. King lobbed a ball that just did stay in bounds in the back, which seemed to spark the visitors. The Truckers were able to catch the Eagles out of system for consecutive points and Snook called a timeout to regroup her team with a 21-16 lead. But Norwalk kept coming. After Loose was able to get a kill of a Norwalk block at the left side of the net, Bella Hernandez did the same. When a ball was hit out of bounds by the Eagles, it was suddenly a 22-18 deficit with Norwalk serving. After a long point, Reiber finally just punched the ball over and it found the floor to make it 23-18. King put down a big kill to pull within 23-20, and it appeared Norwalk was about to win a point, but the ball just did land out of bounds. With set point on deck, Haylee Morman then got a kill to graze off a Norwalk defender to seal the set and match for Monroeville. "These kids don't quit and will always play hard through the end of a match," Norwalk coach Sarah Kipp said. "Win or lose, I know they will do that. It's something to commend them for. They do that for every point they are on the floor." For Norwalk, King had 16 kills and three blocks. Moehlman had 12 kills and Gamble added 10. Emily Tyler finished with 45 assists, while Sawyer Wineman had 28 digs. Gamble added 17 digs and Lola Schlotterer had 16. Hernandez also added seven kills and two blocks. For Monroeville, Reiber finished with 14 kills, while Ady Adams had 13 and Alexa Adams added 12. Loose and Morman each had six. Addison Lyons had 25 assists and Poths finished with 17. Addison Homan led the defense with 37 digs. Alexa Adams had 15, and Lyons had 11. Three others also had nine digs for the Eagles, who also served 11 aces. "I'd like our serving to be even more aggressive than it was, but we did a nice job again," Snook said. "We were serving way too often to their libero, which got them in system to run their offense."