Assumption outside hitter Brooke Moore hits the ball toward Sacred Heart setter-outside hitter Abigail Westenhofer, center, and Sacred Heart middle blocker Kristen Clemons, right.
09 October 2016 (David R. Lutman/Special to the CJ)
With more than 1,000 prep volleyball wins under his belt, legendary Assumption coach Ron Kordes is not accustomed to burning timeouts in the opening points of the first set.
But Sunday was no ordinary match against no ordinary opponent.
So the ol’ ball coach changed things up against Sacred Heart, waking the Rockets out of their early funk en route to a 3-1 (22-25, 25-17, 25-12, 25-19) win over the Valkyries in front of a packed house at Sacred Heart.
GALLERY | Assumption at Sacred Heart volleyball
Behind a pair of errors, Assumption (29-5) opened with a 5-0 hole against the Valkyries (29-4), who jumped to No. 4 on Wednesday in the USA TODAY Sports/American Volleyball Coaches Association Super 25 national rankings.
The deficit caused Kordes to call timeout and ask his usually headstrong squad what the deal was.
“They’re a good team and we started out so poorly. We had talked all week long preparing for this,” said Kordes, who took another timeout down 16-7. “We had to get agressive. What do we have to lose here? And so we did. But we came out very soft in the first set and then we started playing. Once we got down, what do you have to lose then, right? And so we started playing.”
For the Valkyries, who hadn’t lost since Sept. 17, the start was a continuation of their torrid play. Since returning home from Las Vegas for the Durango Fall Classic, Sacred Heart had won 29-of-30 sets.
“That team you saw in the first half of that first set was the way we’ve been playing for last I don’t know how many matches. That’s what we’re used to seeing,” said Sacred Heart coach Brett Versen. “Then they ran off some points on us — which good teams do and we talked about that — and then we started pressing. We started to be too perfect and make the perfect play.”
Assumption, which began the season as the state’s top-ranked team, finally gained some momentum late in the first set with a 5-1 run before the Valkyries closed out the game.
Sacred Heart senior outside hitter Paige Hammons, a preseason All-American, had seven of her match-high 19 kills in the opening set.
Rockets senior outside hitter Brooke Moore, who has verbally committed to Austin Peay, recorded five of her team-high 18 kills in the second set as the Rockets evened the match.
Assumption continued its surge in the third set, winning 11 of the first 18 points and taking a double-digit lead at 20-10. The Rockets limited Hammons, who was tabbed last week as 1-of-5 midseason candidates for American Family Insurance ALL-USA Girls Volleyball Player of the Year, to just one kill in the third set and the other Valkyries combined for just five others compared to the Rockets’ 14 in the set.
The Valkyries appeared to have a renewed spirit in the fourth set as Hammons had three kills and senior right-side hitter Lauryn Bennett added three more — Bennett finished with 13 kills — to give Sacred Heart its largest lead of the final game.
Assumption responded with an 8-3 run behind three combined kills from its freshman front-line duo of Rylee Rader (seven kills, five blocks) and Anna DeBeer (nine kills).
“We kind of go out with nothing to lose pretty much since we’re freshmen,” Rader said. “If I get set, I just try to make a play. And if not, it’s not there and I’ll try to make it work out. If I make a mistake, I try to shake it off.”
Taylor Swift, at least lyrically, certainly would have approved.
Sacred Heart rebounded with a 5-1 run and took its last lead at 17-15 on a kill from Bennett. The Rockets shook off the Valkyries’ last gasp with a 7-0 run fueled by four Valkyrie errors, two Rocket blocks and a kill.
A kill by Assumption senior outside hitter Jacqueline Askin, who has committed to Bowling Green, capped the Rockets’ rousing comeback and handed the Valkyries their only home loss of the season.
“We have to go back and just trust what we’ve been doing all year,” Versen said. “I think mentally that was the biggest thing. It wasn’t anything physical. I think just mentally our mindset changed and that little difference changed the momentum and we could never get it back.”