Wellington runs out of gas, falls to Oberlin

In volleyball, sometimes one set can cost you the match, or at least take the energy out of you.

That’s likely what happened to Wellington as it went through a grueling opening two sets, only to run out of gas in the third as it was eventually defeated by Oberlin, 3-1, in a fiercely competitive Patriot Athletic Conference crossover matchup at Wellington High School on Sept. 25.

After taking a riveting first set, 26-24, the Dukes (7-7, 5-4 PAC) were mere moments away from snatching set two, and a 2-0 lead, but were denied on a couple of controversial line judge calls while tied up at 26 and 27.

They lost the set 30-28.

The emotion and frustration carried over into the third set, where they were quickly jumped on 11-1, eventually battling back, but falling 25-15.

The hangover effect from set two was evident.

“I think that (fatigue) was one of the things,” Dukes coach John Fell said.

“We had some emotional calls out there too on the floor. Both those calls went against us. I’m not taking anything away, that’s part of the game. The younger girls couldn’t necessarily play through some of the adversity like that.”

Having been down two starters, including senior Erin Frenk, Fell was proud of the effort his girls showed throughout the night.

“I’m really proud of them... the girls played as hard as I could expect them to play.”

Wellington was led by a sensational performance from Alexis Lehmkuhl. The senior tallied 18 kills and 12 assists on the evening.

She and teammate, junior Jalen Gibbs (12 assists, 11 kills) provided matchup problems for the Phoenix (9-6, 8-3 PAC) throughout the night.

“We just adjusted our offense and adjusted our defense to go after their hitters,” Oberlin coach Casey Marcelo said.

“They’re just awesome players. Those ladies, you just couldn’t go at them. We just had to find ways to go around them.”

Oberlin found its way around the tough Wellington front line with kills from Kaylianna Barbee, Lauren Sands and huge performance from Karissa Rankin.

Rankin tallied 22 kills and 12 aces as she led the Phoenix to a hard-fought PAC victory.

“I think staying calm is a big factor when it is going back-and-forth like that,” Rankin said.

“Our energy always has to stay up the whole time. Just simple things like that.”

Led by Lehmkuhl, Wellington looked reinvigorated in the fourth set, holding a 22-19 lead as the teams went back and forth in the prior minutes.

But the Phoenix made their move, going on a 3-0 run from a pair of spirited kills from the front line, eventually finding their way around Lehmkuhl and Gibbs.

‘ “We forced them to make decisions that they were uncomfortable with,” Marcelo said. “As long as we just slowed those two down, our defense is pretty solid, and I knew we could get it.”

The swing of momentum continued to last as the Phoenix evened it up at 23-23.

That’s when Oberlin’s Nya Grady-Norman delivered a pair of aces to finally put the Dukes away.