Nearly every time Tri-Valley tried to make a run at Nativity, the Green Wave’s Jocelyn Holobetz had a loud answer.
“We’ve been working hard and it’s great to see our outcome be a win so far,” Holobetz said after her 19 kills helped Nativity to a 25-16, 27-25, 25-12 sweep of the Dawgs in a Schuylkill League Divisions III-IV crossover match Tuesday.
The match was the second in two days between unbeaten Schuylkill League teams after Marian topped Panther Valley on Monday.
Like Marian, the Green Wave (6-0, 6-0 D-IV) achieved a 3-0 victory, though Tri-Valley (6-1, 5-1 D-III) nearly took a heart-stopping second set.
“I knew that they weren’t going to go away. They were going to be scrappy and they were going to come at us, at us and at us,” Nativity coach Jennifer Daubert said of Tri-Valley.
In a set featuring five ties, Tri-Valley served for the second set twice and lost both opportunities.
Nativity trailed 24-22 when Holobetz pounded two straight kills to draw the teams even.
Tri-Valley again got to set
point when Maddie Deibert dinked the ball over Nativity’s front line for a 25-24 lead.
But a hitting error by Tri-Valley brought the teams even again with Nativity serving.
Carley Lionetto served an ace and then ended a long rally when she sent an overspin dink into a gap in the Dawgs defense, giving the Green Wave the win.
“They spent a lot of energy there and, once they got down, they couldn’t get back up,” Tri-Valley head coach Alice Scheib said of her club. “It’s something to work on.”
Nativity controlled the third set as Lionetto served the final five points, during which she scored the match-ending kill.
It ended a nervous night for the Green Wave, which had an individual goal in sight — 1,000 career assists for setter Noelle Steele.
“I think we just really wanted to get Noelle to that 1,000th,” Holobetz said. “We were just putting a lot of pressure on ourselves, especially at the beginning.”
Needing one to reach the milestone, Steele finished with 30 assists in the match.
They included a pass to Holobetz for a kill that gave Nativity a 2-1 lead in the opening set.
The teams eventually battled to an 11-11 tie, but Emily Yordy put the Green Wave ahead to stay with a kill along the back line of Tri-Valley’s court.
Later, Nativity’s Ashley Strausser served her team’s final three points of the set, capped when Cecilia DiNicola returned a Tri-Valley overset back to the floor for the clinching point.
“I thought serving was the difference in the first game,” Daubert said. “I thought we made less serving errors in the first game than them. We were serving some balls really hard.”
Despite seven kills by Holobetz in the second set, Nativity was unable to hold onto a 16-10 lead as Tri-Valley came back to nearly win.
Five times in the set, Nativity lost points on errant serving attempts.
“We definitely have to work on our serving. It’s definitely been a factor in our game so far,” Holobetz said. “Once we get our serves over, then the defense is covering hitters and blocking.”
But Daubert said the Green Wave covered any shortfalls by passing well.
“Not only off the free balls and their attacks, but off serve receive as well,” she said. “I thought we did a good job with that.”
Strausser added five kills and 12 digs for the Green Wave. Lionetto had four kills and 10 digs while Yordy had four kills.
For Tri-Valley, Reagan Newswanger posted 10 assists. Cat Troutman had three kills and two blocks while Maddie Deibert had six kills.
Nativity won the junior varsity match, 2-0.