Warriors fall in four sets to Great Mills
Torgesen delivers with sets and serves as Hornets volleyball goes to 7-1
Great Mills has emerged as one of the upper tier volleyball teams in the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference this fall thanks to the serving and setting skills of senior lefthander Rebekah Torgesen and her full complement of weapons at the net.
Wednesday evening in a nondivision contest versus visiting La Plata, Torgesen effectively distributed the ball to outside hitter Caley Neville, right side attacker Lauren Heibel and middle hitter Erika Berry as the Hornets emerged with a fourset victory over the Warriors by scores of 25-20, 22-25, 25-17 and 25-19.
“Me and Rebekah have a great chemistry,” Heibel said. “We played one full season of club together and we know each other really well. She does a great job of setting all of us. Caley is a great hitter and Erika had a really good night in the middle. We all just work so well together.”
La Plata (5-3), which will have its first three home matches of the season next week after spending the first three weeks on the road, repeatedly fell behind early and then attempted to rally. As a unit, the Warriors did not play up to their potential on Wednesday and much of their demise was on account of inconsistent back row play, poor passing and inefficient sets.
“This was definitely not our best match of the season,” La Plata head coach Bill Young said. “We kept digging ourselves a hole. Our passing was not good and when we did pass the ball our sets were not good. We could not run our attack the way that we’re supposed to. Great Mills has a really good
team. They definitely played really well tonight.”
Great Mills took control of the opening set as Torgesen delivered six straight jump serves for winners and an early 6-0 lead. In contrast, La Plata got few points off serves and rallied belatedly to get within 24-20 on an ace from junior outside hitter Devin Ruble before Torgesen ended the first set with a tap at the net.
The belated bid in the opener gave La Plata some momentum heading into the second set, which proved to be the most competitive game of the match. The Warriors and Hornets were tied at 11 different points that set and La Plata eventually prevailed 25-22 as reserve back row player Sydney Bales recorded six service winners to offset a difficult night passing.
Torgesen again gave the Hornets a lead to start the third set and later Bryce Harden recorded four straight winners to vault the hosts to a 9-2 lead. But La Plata began to slice into the deficit with McKenzie Roof serving and it was able to run an attack with Ruble and Loryn Cottle becoming far more prominent at the net.
Following a prolonged exchange of sideouts between the two squads, Great Mills libero Heather Massetti recorded six straight service winners to end the set, capped by an ace. Three of the other five points came courtesy of La Plata attack errors, but two others came on sets from Torgesen that Neville delivered for kills.
Having ended the pivotal third set on a decisive 7-0 run, Great Mills seized the momentum early in the fourth set as Torgesen again delivered southpaw serves that the Warriors found difficult to pass. Service runs from Ruble and Jayci Chamberlain brought the visitors back to within 11-9, but Torgesen countered with seven straight winners for a commanding 1910 lead.
Great Mills is scheduled to host North Point at 5:30 p.m. today, while La Plata is set to open its home schedule versus McDonough at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
“She definitely did a great job setting their hitters,” Ruble said of Torgesen. “She did a great job serving and running their attack. We definitely could have played a lot better. I thought we just came out flat, but it will be nice to finally be able to play some home matches next week. The gym looks great.”