Balanced Willard forces tie atop Bay with Huron

HURON — Willard wasn't going to let this one go five. The Crimson Flashes used multiple hitters attacking from all angles to knock off Huron 25-23, 20-25, 25-14, 25-23 on Tuesday, pulling into a tie with the Tigers atop the Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division. Huron defeated Willard in five sets Sept. 4 in Willard. "That would've been our worst nightmare, to go five, because we knew what happened last time," Willard coach Ashley Bond said. "We were glad to get it done in four." Camryn Wiers, one of four Willard seniors, celebrated her last trip to Huron. Willard is joining the Northern 10 Conference next year. The Crimson Flashes went undefeated in the Bay last year and are in position to at least tie for the title this year. "This means the world to us," Wiers said. "This is very exciting; this is always one of our biggest goals. Now we just have to focus on playing our best against the other SBC teams to try to get to the top." Wiers, who had 11 kills, 14 assists and 14 digs, was one of three hitters to reach double figures in kills for the Flashes (14-3, 6-1 Bay). Senior Natalie Slone had 14 kills and junior Leah Weiss added 13. "We have a lot of strong hitters," Wiers said. "We have smart hitters, we have hitters that can hit it hard. We have a lot of girls who can do a lot of different things." That would describe Wiers, a tall, athletic hitter and setter who plays all around. "She makes some unbelievable saves at the net being so tall," Bond said. "That new rule benefits us because they can't call her for a lift. She just puts balls in play for our hitters. She's doing an amazing job switching to setting this year." Wiers helped Willard scramble and get better looks than the Tigers (12-5, 6-1 Bay) throughout the match. "I felt like when we were out of system we were still getting good swings off of it, putting good balls in play," Bond said. "If our setter can't take it, we have hitters everywhere. Just put a high ball up and we'll swing at it. That's what we were doing tonight. That was definitely to our advantage. "When we're swinging like that, I wouldn't want to be a defender because you have no idea where the ball is going. You can't key in on one person." Emelia Tallman added 17 assists and Alexis Rettig finished with 21 digs for Willard. "I knew it was gonna be a battle," Huron coach Don Wood said. "I'm not shocked that we played four sets, by any means. What I am shocked about was the number of points we gave away. You can't give all of those to their blocking." Wiers ended the first set with a kill before Huron answered. Jada Foster, who led the Tigers with 20 kills, ended the second set from the left side. Willard dominated the third set, going on an 8-2 run to finish it. Another Wiers kill gave the Flashes a 2-1 lead. Foster kept Huron in the fourth set with a relentless attack at the net. Her kill brought Huron to within 17-16 and a Willard error tied it at 19. The Flashes responded with a 4-0 run, topped off with a kill and block by Weiss. The Tigers got to within 24-23 before an error ended the match. Errors were the post-match theme for Wood. "Too many errors," he said. "Twenty-six hitting errors in four sets is unimaginable." Huron also had eight service errors and couldn't shake an error-filled first set. "It goes five, I think we get them," Wood said. "Their seniors made great decisions. But at this point we have enough experience and it shouldn't matter about seniors versus whatever we have on our side. They were better coached than we were." Addison Graham added nine kills for Huron and Mya Smith finished with seven. Maggie Orzech had six kills and 12 digs. Reece Hotz added 40 assists and 11 digs and Adelyn Van Sickle had 19 digs. Huron travels to Edison on Thursday before finishing Bay play against Margaretta and Vermilion. The Tigers likely will have to win all three to tie Willard for first place. "This game had all kinds of implications — more so that people understand," said Wood, alluding to a new, confusing OHSAA tournament setup. "Mama said there would be days like it. Today was ours. It was just really poorly timed." Willard's last three SBC Bay matches will be against Port Clinton, Edison and Margaretta. Bond was asked if she'll miss the SBC next year. "I'm not looking forward to the new league — I'll just say that," she said.