The Nativity girls’ volleyball team had become the last Schuylkill League team Saturday to lose a dual match.
Afterward, head coach Jennifer Daubert sat down her Green Wave in a corner of the Blue Mountain High School gymnasium.
“I’ll keep that internal, but we had a sit-down talk just to evaluate. Who are we? What do we want? Where do we want to go?” Daubert said.
The Division IV-leading Green Wave righted the ship in a big way Monday night as Nativity coasted to a 25-13, 25-7, 25-8 sweep of Division III runner-up Halifax atop Lawton’s Hill.
As much as Nativity (8-1, 8-0 D-IV) struggled Saturday in the four-set loss to Blue Mountain, the Green Wave found answers against the Wildcats (7-3, 5-3 D-III). Daubert is hoping those answers continue.
“We’re talking about the here-and-now because we’re taking things one day at a time, but it’s also about the journey and where you end up at the end,” she said. “It was a big loss for us on Saturday. We weren’t happy with the way that we played.”
The coach was happier Monday, when the Green Wave trailed just briefly in the first set.
“We were really going after serves today,” Daubert said. “We mixed things up a whole lot better offensively in going to some other people and distributing the ball a whole lot better.”
While Jocelyn Holobetz took her usual leadership position in kills with 13 against Halifax, the Green Wave added six kills by Ashley Strausser and five by Emily Yordy.
Three service runs put Nativity in command in each set.
In the first set, libero Carley Lionetto served an ace to tie the set at 4-4. She then served three more points, including two aces, to give Nativity a 7-4 lead that Halifax never overcame.
Then, after the second of Holobetz’s seven kills in the set, Nativity held a 3-1 advantage in the second set when Yordy stepped behind the service line. She served five points, featuring another kill by Holobetz, for an 8-1 edge.
The margin eventually grew to the 18-point edge at the finish.
Strausser then got the serve with a 1-0 Nativity lead in the final set. Kills by Holobetz and Cecelia DiNicola followed as the lead grew to 5-0. Halifax never got closer than three points after that.
“We always talk about all facets of our game coming together, and I think we had more of that in games two and three tonight, where our serving, our passing, our setting and our hitting came together,” Daubert said.
“You can see what we can do when we’re running quick.”
Nativity’s ability to sustain its serve, even for short stretches, became critical. When a new server stepped to the line for Halifax, the Wildcats lost that point 16 times in the match.
Halifax got off to a strong start, rallying from a 2-1 deficit at the outset to take a 4-2 lead. Molly Smith dealt back-to-back aces in the surge.
But the lead was brief as Nativity outlasted the Wildcats in several rallies throughout the match.
“With all of the teams in Division III, they all play the same style,” Daubert said. “They’re very scrappy. They’re going to pop up balls and we may be getting a lot of free balls coming over to our side.”
Daubert said the Green Wave will see plenty of such volleyball soon.
“It’s a big week for us because there are a lot of crossover games with a lot of these teams in Division III. A lot of them are very similar in style,” she said.
Noelle Steele finished with 27 assists for Nativity, while Strausser and Steele each added five digs.
Halifax was paced by four kills each by Kendall Lehman and Brianna Turner. Morgan Calhoun had four digs.
Nativity won the JV match, 2-0.