Eagles dominate Comets in rematch

Avon is headed to the Division I Elyria District final for the third year in a row after sweeping Amherst in the semifinal Oct. 24 at Midview.

It wasn’t the match the Eagles were expecting, and certainly not the match Amherst was expecting, despite each team having swept the other once in the regular season, but Avon came out in the first set with unmatched energy and exposed what is normally an airtight Amherst defense.

“I think the first set sort of set the tone for the match,” Avon coach Juile Bendzuck said. “We came out guns blazing. We were in system on all cylinders and just able to run sort of whatever we wanted to run. (Amherst) still played phenomenally. Their defense is great, I mean, you always know Amherst is going to be a well-coached team but at the end of the day, we were just able to play a little better and earn some points when we needed them.”

After dropping the first set, 2515, Amherst looked to regroup and come out swinging in set two, and when the Comets took a 16-11 lead, it seemed the match could go the distance. But Avon’s Taylor Dallas stepped to the line and went on her second big service run of the postseason, ripping off two aces in a row on the

way to a seven-point run that changed the complexion of the set.

“It’s definitely a good momentum shift when you have two aces in a row against anybody, and we love taking the energy that it brings,” Dallas said.

“That was one of the things we did as coaches is we looked at her serve and we thought, ‘Oh my god, we have to get her on the court to use it,’ ” Bendzuck said of Dallas. “Every time she goes back there she’s so focused. She’s just smart. That’s been an offensive part of our game all season and she’s just really excelled.”

Unfortunately for Amherst, there was no recovering.

The Comets struggled on serve receive in the third set and fell behind by as many as nine points, but it was their defense that never felt truly settled in as Avon continued to read the court and place the ball all night.

Sydney Stone had 10 kills for Avon (22-2), Katie Koziarz had nine and Katie Sopko eight.

“I think our hitters have worked really hard on understanding you don’t always have to hit the ball as hard as you can to be effective and that’s one of those things where we work on different shots every single day: off speed, hard line, deep angle, whatever it could be,” Bendzuck said. “When you see them come out in a game and do all those things and be successful, that’s when you’re most proud of them.”

“I think we kind of saw where the defense was lining up and playing and we realized certain spots were open more than swinging, and a kill’s a kill so it works,” Koziarz added.

Maddy Jerdonek put on a stellar performance for the Eagles with 32 assists, 16 digs, three kills and a solo block, while Erin Gardner added 17 digs and three assists.

Avon will face a familiar opponent in St. Joseph Academy (21-3) as the Jaguars have knocked the Eagles out of the finals the past two seasons and Jerdonek said she and her teammates are ready to make history and bring home the school’s first district volleyball championship.

“Well, we’ve been in the position now three years in a row and we just want to make history for our school,” Jerdonek said. “We’re coming in, you know, we don’t have anything to lose. We’re coming in playing hard and wanting to get the job done.”

For Amherst (22-2), its season ends on yet another disappointing note but Coach Laurie Cogan doesn’t want her team to measure itself based on one loss, but rather look at the big picture of a season that saw a back-toback Southwestern Conference championship and 20-plus wins.

“It’s kind of another year where we ended our season just a little bit disappointed,” Cogan said. “Avon is a good team. They’ve got a solid program. It’s about as solid a program as any in the SWC and every time you match up with them you have to be at your very, very best and tonight we missed some assignments and with (Avon), every mistake you pay. They make you pay for every mistake you make and we just made a few too many.

“There isn’t any one thing we did wrong . ... It was just a little bit of everything, but a little bit of everything adds up.

“When you start adding those little bitty pieces, it was just, tonight, against a team of that caliber we couldn’t overcome our mistake.”