Westlake learning from wins and losses

It’s rare for a team to walk away from a loss feeling confident, but the Westlake volleyball team headed for the buses with heads held high after a 3-0 loss at Amherst Sept. 19. They have given the Comets one of their toughest fights all season.

Yes, the Demons were swept, but even Amherst coach Laurie Cogan was impressed with how Westlake game-planned for the 12th-ranked Comets — something few teams have been able to do considering the 13-0 Comets have lost just three sets thus far.

“(Westlake) has good size. They had a good game plan,” Cogan said. “They avoided our block as much as possible but when they did swing, (Leah Schmidt) is a nice hitter. She’s a very nice hitter and she had the ability which, you don’t find many in our conference, at times she went up and over us and that’s not easy to do.”

“They’re an outstanding team,” she added. “They’ve got all the pieces and parts. It’s probably the tallest team at the net that we have played thus far. They’re a nice team.”

Considering the Demons went 2-16 in Southwestern Conference play in 2015 and 8-10 in 2016, the steady improvement has been impressive. With players like Schmidt and Sylvie Yappel at the net, Malorie Hurd at setter and Jackie Moracz anchoring the back row at libero all in their junior season, Coach Meghan Spriggs is thrilled by the potential of her roster.

“I thought we stayed strong the whole match, which, again, from start to finish, is way better for us,” Spriggs said after the Amherst game. “Obviously, as always, there’s things that we can work on but I thought we played methodical. We took big swings when we were supposed to. I thought Jackie Moracz, our libero, played phenomenal defense. Leah Schmidt, lights out all night. (It’s) just not enough, but we’re right there, which is the exciting part.”

Even Amherst middle hitter Tory Small, arguably the best at her position in the conference, had to work a little bit harder than usual to contain Westlake at the net.

“(Westlake’s) hitters were just getting up and pounding the ball,” Small said.

Schmidt had a gamehigh 14 kills against Amherst, and prior to the match was averaging 3.4 kills per set — good for sixth-best in the Morning Journal area.

“She’s just a great hitter, so someone like that, you don’t come in thinking you’re going to stop her, you just want to contain her,” Cogan said of Schmidt. “I thought my kids did a pretty good job containing her, but clearly we didn’t stop her.”

As a team, Westlake is averaging 9.7 kills per set, but more impressive are the 5.2 blocks, which — when compared to Amherst’s 2.7 — is quite a feat as the Comets are considered to have one of the best net defenses in the area.

Now, Spriggs is hoping she and her team can fine-tune their approach and clean up mistakes, such as the four missed serves in the first set against Amherst, so the Demons can have a shot at hanging in the conference race down the stretch. Through the first round of SWC play, Amherst has the top spot followed by Avon and Westlake.

“When you’re playing neck and neck with someone, four serves is a big deal,” Spriggs said. “You put the ball over and in, and you never know what could happen. So cleaning up the little things. We’re right there — it’s not like we’re light years away. It’s just cleaning up and being a little bit smarter than the other team.

“Unfortunately we didn’t end on the side we wanted to (against Amherst), but big picture, reset, we’ve got the second round and you never know what can happen in the SWC . ... We can walk away, yes, unfortunately a loss is a loss, but we probably played one of our best matches of the year so you take it, you learn from it and you move on.”