Bay tops Elyria Catholic, remains perfect in GLC

Bay remains undefeated in Great Lakes Conference after defeating Elyria Catholic to extend its winning streak to three games. Bay hosts Keystone Sept. 1 in a nonconference game.

Bay remained undefeated in conference play with a 3-0 sweep of Elyria Catholic on the road on Aug. 30 to extend its winning streak to three games.

The Rockets are 2-0 in the Great Lakes Conference with a loss to Avon Lake their only setback in the first five games and are proving themselves early contenders for a title with reigning champion Rocky River on the schedule next week.

Elyria Catholic (1-3, 0-2 GLC) didn’t let Bay come into its gym and run it off the court, however.

Each set was decided by three points or less, but after giving up a 24-19 lead to lose the first set, 29-27, the Panthers struggled to overcome the emotional letdown despite remaining competitive for much of the match.

“They kept their intensity up longer than we did,” Elyria Catholic’s Julia Allegretto said. “At the end of sets we kind of started falling apart instead of playing together.”

Bay standout Maggie McAndrews and teammate Jessica Rychel were tied for a game-high 12 kills, carrying nearly the entire load of the Rockets’ offense which managed 26 kills on the night, and though Elyria Catholic out-attacked Bay with 41 kills, it was the precision of McAndrews and Rychel that made the difference in the end.

“We didn’t have match on Tuesday, so we had three days of practice. We worked on a lot of different little things and it really came through tonight with big plays at the end there,” Bay coach Katie McCarthy said.

“EC’s defense is outstanding and they were picking up everything and so we had to find holes and stay focused on offense. They’re a team that has a lot of energy so it gets in our head sometimes so we have to push them out of the way and focus on us.”

It was that hard-nosed Panther defense that forced McAndrews, a hitter known for her power at the net, to get creative with her placement thanks to some adjustments by Elyria Catholic coach Barb Schuckman and her staff.

“They’ve got some great hitters obviously,” Schuckman said. “Maggie is just phenomenal and they’re always very well-coached, always a very good team, they hit hard, good defense, and so we made some adjustments so we could pick up more when Maggie was tipping, the roll shots.”

Grace Schuckman led the Panthers with 10 kills and Allegretto added seven.

Both teams are set for weekend nonconference games with Elyria Catholic traveling to Lutheran West and Bay hosting Keystone Sept. 1 before continue GLC play next week.