The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Fairview locks up title in PAC Stripes Division
The Fairview volleyball team had not won a conference title since 2007 in the West Shore Conference. With a win at Columbia on Oct. 9, the Warriors clinched the PAC Stripes title. Plus, Top of the Crop.
Since joining the Patriot Athletic Conference in 2011, Fairview had yet to win a Stripes Division championship.
Its last conference title was in 2007 as a member of the West S-hore Conference, but with a 3-2 win on the road at Columbia on Oct. 9, the Warriors are champions again.
The win clinched an outright PAC championship with two games left in the regular season and upped Fairview’s win streak to 11 games. The Warriors haven’t lost since Sept. 9 in a 2-0 tournament loss to host Rocky River and are undefeated in conference play at 14-0.
The road to the title hasn’t exactly been easy this week, however.
The Warriors hosted Lutheran West in a must-win match Oct. 5 to stave off the then-second place Longhorns and pulled off a 3-2 win after giving up a 2-0 lead, and the match on the road at Columbia was just as difficult against an always-tough Raiders team.
“I knew going into the match it was going to be a battle,” Fairview coach Ellie Caldwell said. “Being undefeated prior to the match sets us up for everyone in the conference to gun for us and try to give us a loss this season.
“We did not play our best match last night, especially in Set 2 our serve receive fell apart a bit and we struggled to put the ball away on offense. Part of that was our execution, but also Columbia plays good defense and touches just about everything.”
Fairview finished 11-8 (8-8) last season, thanks in large part to season-long injuries to a handful of impact players, and this season the Warriors have benefited greatly from staying healthy and utilizing the team’s widespread talent.
The Warriors have three
players among the area’s hitting leaders in Hannah Minnich (2.9 kills per set), Abby Kuyper (2.7) and Meghan Sozio (2.6). Erin Chambers (1.9) adds depth in the middle, and with a setter like Emma Szoradi, whose 8.8 assists per set are fourth-best in the area, there’s not a whole lot this Fairview offense can’t do.
“We have all of the offensive weapons,” Caldwell said.
“Our setter can give the ball to any of our hitters with confidence.”
Add to that the Warriors’ impressive defense, with five players who average over two digs per set, and their aggressive serving and it’s no wonder they have found the recipe for success in 2017.
If you ask Caldwell, though, she will tell you her team has put in just as much work off the court as it has in practice.
“We did a lot of mental work in the early season with our team in a classroom,” she said.
“I truly believe the thought process of an athlete is just as important as the physical part of the game. All of that work helped this team to face adversity
and come back from behind in quite a few games this year.
“I knew in August we had the talent to do it. We have solid hitters in every position, four starters that are six-rotation players, and a solid libero . ... The more we kept winning, it was like fuel to a fire, and they just kept pushing themselves and each other to win every match.”
Two games are left in the regular season before postseason play officially begins, but Fairview hasn’t even looked past tomorrow.
Caldwell hadn’t even mentioned the postseason draw to her team prior to yesterday’s match at Columbia. The third-year coach has been teaching a mindset of “playing incrementally” which, to Caldwell, means taking the season day-by-day.
“Winning the PAC was one of our goals this year,” Caldwell said. “We have a goal checklist on the door in our locker room and we have talked all season about playing incrementally — just worrying about the next thing on the list, the next match in front of us and not thinking too far ahead of where we’re at.
“We have accomplished almost all of those goals on the list and I could not be prouder of these kids and this team. They worked so hard to earn this.”
Milestone
Vermilion’s Reese Virgin reached a milestone in her volleyball career in the Sailors’ 3-0 loss to Willard Oct. 5.
The senior tallied her 1,000th kill, recording 18 in the match, and her 10 kills vs. Norwalk on Oct. 7 brought her career total to 1,027 and career average to 4.6 kills per set.
Virgin currently ranks fifth among Morning Journal area players in hitting with 258 total kills and a 3.7 per set average. The two-time Lorain County Division II Player of the Year had a season-high 28 kills in Vermilion’s 3-1 win over Lutheran West Sept. 30, and has recorded 20-plus kills in three matches this season.
In 2016, Virgin broke the school record for kills in a season with 403 and was named District 6 Player of the Year and third-team All-Ohio by the Ohio High School Volleyball Coaches Association.
OHSVCA poll
Amherst is ranked in the top 10 in the Ohio High School Volleyball Coaches Association poll for the second straight week.
The Comets tied with Jackson at No. 10 in Division I, receiving 59 votes.
Amherst has quickly climbed in the rankings after coming in at No. 18 in the Week 1 poll. The Comets are 20-1 (16-1 SWC) and will share the conference title with Avon after losing, 3-0, to the Eagles on Oct. 10.
On the court
• Lorain went 2-0 on the week, picking up Lake Erie League wins over Warrensville Heights and Cleveland Heights.
Angelika Patterson had 20 digs over both matches, including 17 against Warrensville Heights. Marissa Sturgill had 12 aces and 17 assists; Seven Townsel had 20 kills, seven blocks and 17 digs, and Evelyn Williams had 17 kills and 16 digs.
Lorain (15-5, 10-0) is vying for its second straight LEL championship — its first outright — and faces third-place Bedford on Oct. 10 and second-place Maple Heights on Oct. 12.
• Elyria went 1-1 on the week, losing to Strongsville on Oct. 3 and beating Euclid on Oct. 5, both by scores of 3-0.
Freshman Abby Monn had five aces in the Pioneers’ final home game of the regular season vs. Euclid.
Alison Guerini had 14 digs over two matches; Chelsey Farris had 18 kills, six blocks and 10 digs, and Madi Smith had 16 kills, three aces, 22 digs and 22 assists.
Elyria is 9-11 (5-7 GCC).