Eastwood’s Mack Miller, far right, celebrates with her team after finishing off match point against Genoa on Tuesday. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
OREGON — Eastwood volleyball’s tandem of Mack Miller and Lilly Mullholand provided just enough inside Clay’s Harold R. Potter Fieldhouse on Tuesday, helping the Eagles stave off upset-minded Genoa in a 19-25, 25-14, 25-10, 24-26, 15-11 victory in a Division IV district semifinal.
With the victory, Eastwood (19-5) advances to face Archbold (20-4) for the district championship on Thursday at 6 p.m.
“We knew (Genoa) was going to come into the game excited and aggressive,” Eastwood coach Sarah Frank said. “They’re a very energetic and athletic team. They came out to fight, and we came out a little flat.
“I didn’t feel like we were reading the ball well. I didn’t feel like we were working well on defense, and we were a little bit higher offensively. It was definitely a battle.”
After sweeping Genoa twice during the regular season, Eastwood’s defect on Tuesday was unforced errors.
In all, the Eagles had 22 errant offensive attacks, 12 service errors and two bad sets. On top of that, they had three plays where they chose to let either a Genoa serve or attack fall in bounds.
In the two sets Eastwood lost, they had 15 combined attack errors compared to seven total in the three they won.
“So many unforced errors,” Frank said. “We weren’t offensively keeping the ball on the court. We weren’t taking smart shots when the ball wasn’t where we wanted it to be. We just weren’t very efficient offensively.”
In the opening set, the two teams split the first 22 points before Eastwood chose to let a ball fall, which spurred four straight points and a 7-1 run from the Comets.
Genoa ultimately led by as many as seven, and Eastwood was unable to pull within closer than four the rest of the way despite six kills from Miller in the frame.
Miller helped Eastwood respond with a pair of relatively easy victories in the next two sets, as the sophomore registered seven terminations in each one.
Her play also coincided with the two cleanest sets of the match for the Eagles, which had just four attack errors as a team combined over that stretch.
Gianna Coalson had a pair of aces in the second set to help the Eagles open up a 11-3 lead, while Ivy Schrader had an ace and the set-winning termination.
Miller dominated early in the third set, producing terminations on four consecutive points to give Eastwood a 6-3 lead, and she added two more for a 10-5 advantage.
An ace and a kill from Addie Hartman helped maintain the momentum. Mullholand had a pair of kills down the stretch, and Miller smashed home the set-clinching point.
Unfortunately for Eastwood, they had 10 attack errors and two service faults in the fourth set, although they nearly pulled off the win.
With the Eagles trailing 18-13, Miller had two kills during a 6-1 run that also featured a key termination from senior Mylie Frantz, who saw some time in the middle for the first time since she was a freshman after battling some injuries.
Frank said Frantz was a sparkplug.
“(Mylie) is just a smart player, and she’s just so fun to have on the court,” she said. “It was enjoyable to see her back out there. She’s coming back from an injury this year, so she’s kind of been in and out of the lineup. To see her back on the court was wonderful.”
Knotted at 19 apiece, Genoa got a kill and a block out of a timeout, which forced an Eastwood timeout. The Eagles then let the ensuing serve land, and another block then gave the Comets a 23-19 advantage.
Facing multiple set points for Genoa, Mullholand and Hartman teamed up on a block, and the Comets followed with an attack error to tie it at 24 apiece.
Genoa, however, responded with back-to-back terminations to force a fifth set.
The Eagles trailed just once in the fifth set, which came at 3-2 following an attack error.
On the next point, Miller used a second chance offensive opportunity after a continuation for her 24th kill, and Hartman followed with a termination.
Although Genoa tied it up at four apiece, Miller added another termination, and Eastwood never trailed again, using a 7-3 run that was capped by a kill from Mullholand and an ace from Hartman for an 11-7 lead, which forced a timeout.
The Comets scored three straight out of the break, but Mullholand and Miller had kills on back-to-back points for a 13-10 lead. An errant attack gave Eastwood four match points, and despite a service error on the next point, Miller finished off the victory with her 27th kill.
“I really think we got put under a little pressure, and we really just started to rely on each other, rely on our ability to play how we know how to play,” Mullholand said. “That really helped us get through the nervousness, just breathing through it and going point-for-point.”
Miller finished with 27 kills, eight digs and two blocks. She had 20 kills over the first three sets and, despite a tough fourth set, came through for the Eagles when it mattered.
“I think sometimes the load is a lot on that kid,” Frank said. “We are just expecting a lot from her, and she was a little bit more high-error tonight, and her high-error is 27 kills in a match. She gets a lot of balls.
“You’re talking about a pin hitter who just gets a ridiculous amount of sets, and sometimes that comes with nights that are high-error.”
Miller and Mullholand had seven of Eastwood’s 15 points in the fifth set. Hartman added three more on a pair of kills and an ace, and Kyrie Henline chipped in an ace, as well.
Frank was happy with how her team responded after losing a tough fourth set.
“We’ve been working really hard to mentally prepare for sets,” she said. “I do feel like if this happened earlier in the season, maybe we wouldn’t have executed as well.
“But I do think, even though we didn’t play our best tonight, we were mentally tough, resilient and gritty. We did a good job of taking deep breaths when things weren’t going our way and resetting.”
Mullholand had eight kills over the final two sets en route to 14 for the match, which accompanied her six blocks. She had four of Eastwood’s seven points on terminations in a stretch spanning the end of the third and start of the fourth sets.
Henline added 50 assists, six digs and three aces, while Hartman chipped in seven kills and five digs. Schrader had six kills and three aces, Coalson had 10 digs and two aces, and Adysen Might contributed six digs and two aces.
The Eagles will now play for a district title, and Miller thinks the test on Tuesday could provide dividends against Archbold.
“I think this gives us confidence,” she said. “I think we need to be a little more gritty at the end, but I think we’ll definitely change that and finish strong.”
