Titans cruise past LEL foe Tigers

LORAIN — Lorain rounded out the first half of Lake Erie League play in convincing fashion.

Playing with an edge and having a balanced attack at the net, the host Titans defeated Cleveland Heights, 2513, 25- 13, 25-18 on Tuesday.

“We have been working so much on focusing and not making mental errors — especially more than one in a row,” Lorain Coach Lynne Rositano said. “This is our hard half the season coming up, playing Brookside, Maple (Heights), Clearview and Vermilion in a row — looking towards the tournament. We have to be focused.”

The focus Lorain ( 9- 2, 6- 1)

had showed from the start with Katelyn Gonzalez rattling off seven- straight service points to give them a 7-0 lead. During the run, three different Titans has kills, giving the Tigers (27, 2-3) a prelude of things to come.

With the front line consisting a combination of Kayla Lurry, Destiny Wilson, Alexis Castro, Marlena Guice and Raeven Bastock at any given time, the Tigers’ block never knew where Titans setter Serena Rodriguez (36 assists) was going to feed.

“We had a lot of focus and concentration at the net,” Lurry said. “We want to do our best every time we step on the court.”

The front line also helped out the Titans’ defense forcing the Tigers out of system and getting only a few attacks. With free balls coming over, Lorain was able to get into its offense efficiently and pounding down kills.

Lurry, who had a teamhigh 11 kills, was the benefactor. She had two of her kills late in the first set to put Lorain at game point — which ended on a Bastock kill.

The balanced attack showed in the second set with Guice ( 8 kills) and Alexis Castro (7 kills) each recording four kills. It helped the Titans open up a 19-9 lead.

“I think it keeps them (attackers) on their toes knowing the setter is going to mix it up,” Rositano said. “They have to be ready at all times. It keeps them active which I like. No one can stand around.”

When it wasn’t Lorain’s attacking, its’ blocks did was doing the damage to force several hitting errors by the Tigers. Back- toback hitting errors followed by a Guice ace gave Lorain a commanding 2-0 lead.

“We took advantage of line,” Guice said. “They have a good block, but we ran a lot of quick (sets). We have been working on it a lot at practices so we can get the plays down.

“When it’s a slower game sometimes we have a hard time focusing. When it’s fast pace, we play better.”

The quick offense worked several times against Cleveland Heights’ big block of Bryce Gannt (5-11) and Daesia Avery (5-10) with either Lurry or Castro finishing off the play.

The focus Lorain had throughout most of the match started to wane in the third set with the Tigers taking advantage of a couple of Lorain errors and a block kill by Gannt to trial 15-13.

After a time out, Lorain righted itself and started to pull away. Back-to-back aces by Castro (team-high seven aces) gave them a 20-14 lead.

She left after her serve was up after hitting the floor hard while trying to make a dig.

Though Castro wasn’t in the line-up, Lorain closed out the match on a Lurry kill.

The mental errors and serving errors which plagued the Titans last week against Bedford were few and far between against Cleveland Heights. They committed only five serving errors while their passing was near-perfect with Olivia Williams (14 of 14), Guice (13 of 13) and Gonzalez (10 of 10) each having a perfect night.

Lorain starts the second half of LEL action traveling to Euclid Thursday.