Thursday’s Schuylkill League Division IV girls’ volleyball match atop Lawton’s Hill featured two of the division’s leading players.
Both Minersville’s Meg Schwalm and Nativity’s Jocelyn Holobetz performed as advertised, but Holobetz and her fellow Green Wave came away the winner.
Holobetz produced 18 kills as Nativity improved to 2-0 in Division IV with a 25-8, 25-14, 25-20 sweep of the Battlin’ Miners despite Schwalm’s 31 digs from her libero position.
“There’s no question about what we need to do, and our game plan is the same going into everything,” Nativity head coach Jennifer Daubert said. “We have to serve, and we have to pass.
“If we can serve and pass, everything else takes care of itself.”
While Nativity used that formula from a veteran lineup to win, Minersville gradually began to improve its play as the match progressed. It wasn’t enough to avoid its first loss of 2015.
“We looked a little nervous from the beginning and were a step slow, but we kept in touch with them throughout the night and kept fighting and getting better,” Minersville head coach Kenton Martin said.
That was Daubert’s concern, even as the Green Wave held a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 match.
“It may have been OK and we’re kind of cruising along after sets (one and two), but that’s exactly what I said. They are not going to roll over and die, and we need to come out and be ready,” she said.
Instead, Minersville, which never led during the first two sets, scored the first four points of the third and held a four-point lead, 8-4, before Nativity rallied to finish the sweep.
Along the way, Daubert said, the Green Wave tried to take advantage of the Battlin’ Miners’ defensive alignment.
“They were playing really deep. They’re peppering everything back there,” Daubert said. “I thought we had some opportunities to hit certain spots.”
But the first set was dominated by errors. Led by two kills from Holobetz, Nativity took a 7-1 lead and never let Minersville get closer than four points the rest of the way.
Nativity then took a 4-1 lead in the second set, but Minersville battled back to tie the set twice, the last at 6-6. A kill by Ashley Strausser and two Miner hitting errors allowed the Green Wave to go ahead to stay.
Holobetz had seven kills, including two in a service run by Emily Yordy that turned a 14-10 lead into a 17-10 bulge. Nativity then scored eight of the final 12 points.
But that momentum didn’t last. Minersville’s Erica Nettles, who had four kills in the match, served two aces as the Miners took a 4-0 lead.
Helped by Yordy’s kill, Nativity answered with four straight points, but a series of hitting errors put Minersville ahead 8-4.
Nativity then scored eight of the next nine points, including a five-point service run by Carley Lionetto that featured two kills by Holobetz and another by Shannon Reiley.
“It seemed their second middle was having a hard time getting out on the block. We were able to run the offense a little,” Daubert said of the third-game surge.
Before Nativity pulled away, though, Minersville got three kills from a sophomore middle hitter, MacKenzie Cullen, to stay close.
While the Miners got four blocks from Reiley Lonergan and three aces from Maura Bentz, Schwalm extended many points with dig after dig.
“She had an impressive night. She always puts herself in position to play good defense and is willing to do that,” Martin said.
While Strausser had five digs and five kills, Daubert said she was impressed by Cecilia DiNicola, who had five kills and three blocks.
“She had some key blocks at certain times, and she was making some really good runs at the ball, so I’m really happy with her improvement,” Daubert said.
In the junior varsity match, Nativity won 2-0.