Lake hitter Mylah Vorst swings for one of her match-best 12 kills in the Flyers’ three-set win over Otsego on the road Thursday. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
TONTOGANY — The Lake volleyball team used a strong start and a gritty, come-from-behind performance in the second set on Thursday to finish off a 25-11, 26-24, 25-22 win over Otsego.
In doing so, the Flyers inched closer to clinching at least a share of their fifth consecutive NBC championship, which they can do with a win over Rossford on Tuesday.
“I was excited to see us start off strong because it’s been a while,” Lake coach Amy Vorst said. “I was proud of how we came out. In the second set, Otsego served more aggressively, and I think that we kind of relaxed too much. We lost our hunger to go at it, and I think we made too many hitting errors in the third set.
“I’m glad the girls persevered, though, and didn’t give up the second one after being down big. For them to come back and win, I’m proud of them.”
Lake (14-6, 11-1 NBC) scored four of the first five points in the opening set, highlighted by an ace from Lucy Boos. A short time later, Savanna Saunders had a kill and an ace sandwiched around a termination from Keira Magers for an 11-4 lead.
The Flyers kept the surge going behind three consecutive aces from Laynie Meadows that pushed the lead to 11.
Vayda Schmidt and Bella Simon responded for Otsego with back-to-back kills, and Emma Reid added one a short time later to pull the Knights within 19-9.
A termination and a block on consecutive points from Mylah Vorst, however, set up a set-clinching kill from Kennedy Falkenberg.
In total, Lake had 11 kills and five aces in the opening frame with zero hitting errors.
The young Knights team, which has just five upperclassmen, responded early in the second set as an ace from Kortny Rollins provided a 5-4 lead.
Lake was within one a few points later when Avery Carpenter had a kill on the right side and back-to-back aces to highlight a 5-0 run that gave Otsego a 14-8 lead and forced a timeout.
“I think we were executing a lot more in that second set,” Otsego head coach Gabby Smith said. “Our serve receive was a lot better, and that obviously helped get us in system, which was a big thing.”
Schmidt added another kill moments later as Otsego matched its largest lead of the set at six.
The Knights held steady, receiving a kill from Rollins for an 18-13 lead and two terminations from Carpenter for 20-16 and 21-17 leads.
“I think we are meshing,” Smith said. “We’re deep in season now. We only have one more week of league play. We have kids that are stepping up and executing and not having as many errors. Keeping those at a minimum really, really helps us.”
Lake started to take control from there as a kill from Falkenberg and an ace from Sydney Marchetto started a 6-0 run. Despite an ace late from Molly Kramer, the Flyers finished off the set with back-to-back kills from Saunders and Meadows.
“We totally turned it on,” Vorst said. “We came into (the second set) kind of relaxed thinking we didn’t have to get after it, and once we got down, I was proud we didn’t quit, fought back and won it.”
The third set featured four ties early as the teams split the first 10 points. Despite a mini-run from Lake, the two squads were tied four more times with the final one coming at 14 apiece following a kill from Rollins.
From there, Vorst and Saunders had back-to-back kills, Calli Conley had an ace and Boos sneaked a fake-set over for a kill to force an Otsego timeout.
Conley added another ace moments later to complete a 6-0 run and give Lake a 20-14 lead.
Otsego continued fighting and eventually pulled within 23-22 following a Lake attack out of bounds, but a service error followed by a termination from Vorst finished off the match.
Vorst and Falkenberg had 12 and 10 kills, respectively, to lead Lake’s offensive attack, while Magers also contributed seven. Marchetto led the defense with 19 digs, and Conley added 15. Saunders (21) and Boos (15) combined for 36 assists.
Carpenter finished with six kills to lead Otsego (11-10, 7-5 NBC), while Cassie Bunde had 15 assists and nine digs.
The Knights forced Lake into a much more competitive match than the initial meeting between the two programs on Sept. 10, and Smith is happy with her team’s improvement.
“The biggest thing is that we were executing at a much higher level against a team that is top in the league, and they have great players,” she said. “There was a big block against us and for us to execute against that is great. It shows that we have a little bit of grit.
“Our blocking was good, or at least we were getting block touches, which we didn’t last time. Following those hitters and improving on that was a big thing coming into this match.”
