The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Elyria Pioneers dominate Rocky River
Rocky River is a big winner too, defeating Brookside and Massillon
Elyria and Rocky River were the big winners at the host Pioneers’ annual Power Quad Sept. 22.
The Pirates went 2-1 on the day, defeating Brookside and Massillon Washington, while Elyria picked up two wins over Rocky River and Brookside.
In the first match of the day, the Pioneers looked strong against Rocky River, exposing some weaknesses on serve receive and matching up well with the Pirates’ hard-hitting front court to pick up the win, and Coach Jen Shouse was pleased with her team’s intensity despite allowing Rocky River to get within one or two points late in each set.
“I was really happy with how we came out against Rocky River,” Shouse said. “We know they have some big hitters and I was really impressed with our energy and intensity. But I’d like to see, when we get challenged, how are we going to respond and I want us to be able to respond better when we get challenged and things aren’t going our way.”
“I was really happy with how we came out against Rocky River.”
— Elyria’s Coach Jen Shouse
It was a frustrating opening match for Rocky River which felt like it let the game get away, but senior Ava Rauser said, in a way, it’s encouraging to know much of the mistakes can be fixed as the second half of the conference schedule looms for the defending Great Lakes Conference champion Pirates.
“One thing we haven’t done well is we’re our own biggest enemy,” Rauser said. “It’d be nice to be able to play Elyria again because I think we definitely could beat them. We’re just working out some kinks and it’s almost encouraging to see that we’re beating ourselves because we know it’s things we can fix.
“Unfortunately our conference is not the strongest so it’s awesome getting to see different teams we don’t play all the time, get different looks, and it exposes different weaknesses we have so we can work on things as the postseason comes along.”
Rocky River won out the rest of the day, while a setback to Massillon Washington left Elyria frustrated heading into the last match against Brookside.
The Cardnials held tough against a rattled Elyria and had some big swings against the Pioneers’ strong defense, both in the front and back rows, but serving errors kept Brookside from ever making a run and Elyria eventually regained its intensity to close the day with a victory.
“We got pretty lucky with some of the teams’ missed serve and that gave us a little boost and we starting cleaning things up,” Shouse said.
Sophomore Abby Monn led Elyria with 44 kills on the day and added 27 digs, extending plays in the back row as Shouse said the 5-foot-10 outside hitter continues to improve in her first season as both a front and back row player.
“This is her first year playing back row so it’s still new to her...so she can make some really good defensive plays, but she’s getting a lot more confident in herself and her abilities,” Shouse said.
For Brookside, an 0-3 isn’t exactly what it hoped for, but Coach Jenn Larrick said quad matches against teams of this caliber are all about growth. The Cardinals showed a much improved net presence and found ways to get the ball up off attacks from hitters like Monn and Rauser.
“We’ve been a much better blocking team, getting more touches on balls, too, so that’s helped our scrappiness,” Larrick said. “If we can take what we learned today and the energy we can play with and take it to our future matches, it’s a lesson learned.”