HEGINS — Tri-Valley junior setter Reagan Newswanger could afford to smile.
The Dawgs had not only dismantled Upper Dauphin, one of their Schuylkill League Division III rivals, but also did it in three quick games, 25-10, 25-13, 25-5, on Tuesday on their home court.
That added up to a welcome early finish for Newswanger and her teammates, a far cry from Monday night when Tri-Valley traveled to Millersburg, endured a five-set match and lost.
“After last night’s game, I was a little worried, but we picked up our game and did really good,” Newswanger, who had six digs and 18 assists, said of Tuesday’s match.
Upper Dauphin (3-1, 1-1 D-III) entered Tuesday’s match atop the Division III standings after beating defending division champion Halifax. Tri-Valley’s victory Tuesday only added confusion to an already wide-open title chase. Each of the division’s five teams now has at least one loss.
“We saw they went five (sets) with Halifax and we were coming in thinking they were one of the best in the division right now,” Tri-Valley head coach Heather Drumheller said of Upper Dauphin. “We knew we had to serve aggressive. We were coming off a loss last night, and we knew they’re in our
division as well and had to make sure we won.”
From the opening moments, there was little doubt about Tuesday’s outcome.
“By the countenance on some of the girls’ faces, there must be something going on, but I don’t know what it is,” Upper Dauphin head coach Terry Bowser said of his team. “It’s a shame we couldn’t give you a better show.”
Instead, Tri-Valley (3-1, 2-1) rolled to a 16-4 lead in the opening set and a 16-3 edge in the third en route to its second three-set victory of the season.
“We didn’t play the greatest last night (against Millersburg). We were kind of flat all night,” Drumheller said. “So that was definitely a concern coming into tonight, but I think it was kind of a reality check for them with the loss last night.”
That didn’t matter to the Dawgs, who used two early kills and another block to the court by senior middle hitter Madisson Sheib to take a 7-1 lead in the first set. The margin grew to 12 points before Upper Dauphin briefly rallied, chopping the margin to eight. However, after a Tri-Valley hitting error and an ace by the Trojans’ Laura Sweger cut the margin to 19-10, the Trojans lost their next point. That enabled the Dawgs’ Maddie Deibert to then serve out the set.
Upper Dauphin managed to lead by two points twice early in the second set before Tri-Valley overtook the Trojans. A six-point service run, featuring one of Deibert’s five kills in the match, gave Tri-Valley a 20-9 lead. The Dawgs eased to the win and scored the clinching point on Sheib’s spike for one of her six kills in the match.
Tri-Valley scored the first six points of the third set and never let the lead shrink to fewer than five points the rest of the way.
Winning the duel at the net with Sweger — held to five kills, three blocks and six digs in the match — Sheib blocked four Trojan spikes for points in the third set.
The match ended with Deibert’s seven-point service run that included two kills by Cat Troutman.
Taylor Brown had 10 digs for Upper Dauphin.
While Tri-Valley’s win came easily, Drumheller said she expects stiffer competition through the season.
“Everybody’s a lot better, and it’s nice to see,” she said about Division III. “Williams Valley’s a lot better. Millersburg was a lot better compared to other years. I’d rather have it this way and be exciting than not.”
In the junior varsity match, Upper Dauphin took a 2-0 victory.