MINERSVILLE — Minersville head coach Kenton Martin had simple advice for his Battlin’ Miners girls’ volleyball team after the first set of Thursday’s Schuylkill League Division III-IV crossover match.
“I just wanted to get the ball to our middles,” Martin said. “I thought we could be successful with our middles.”
With that advice, the Battlin’ Miners quickly turned around the match against Division III leader Tri-Valley and came away with a 21-25, 25-17, 25-18, 25-21 victory.
The win is Minersville’s 11th in a row, but the Battlin’ Miners (12-1, 9-1 D-IV) remain one game behind Nativity in the division.
Nativity was the last team to beat Minersville with a 3-0 victory Sept. 10. Since then, Minersville won nine straight three-set matches before this week’s five-set win over Shamokin and Thursday’s four-set triumph.
“We’re trying to play solid defense. We’re trying to hustle and get our positioning. We’re trying to play better every night,” Martin said. “You can never stop improving.”
Minersville’s current level was enough to beat the Dawgs (9-2, 8-2 D-III), who lost a three-match winning streak yet still keep their division lead.
“I don’t think we played badly,” Tri-Valley head coach Alice Scheib said. “They (Minersville) are just a very good team and they outplayed us tonight.”
But it took plenty of time for that to happen in the matchup of District 11 Class A Tournament qualifiers.
The Dawgs’ Maddie Deibert posted seven of her match-best 18 kills in the opening set, including the first six of her team’s points.
In a match of long rallies, Minersville tied the set at 21 before Deibert broke the tie with a kill. Then, starting with an ace, she served the set’s final three points.
Martin’s insistence upon feeding the middle hitters in the next set paid immediate dividends. Junior Reiley Lonergan opened the second set with four kills as Minersville surged to a 9-1 lead.
It was the largest margin at any point in the match.
“It’s difficult to beat a team that’s like equal to you. You just have to want it more sometimes,” said Lonergan, who had 12 kills and four blocks after singing the National Anthem before the match
Minersville rode its early surge to a 25-17 win in the second set.
It was interrupted briefly when Minersville, playing with a 22-14 lead, was warned for a delay by attempting a substitution that was illegal. The proper substitution was permitted before play resumed and Minersville won the ensuing point.
After five ties earlier in the set, Tri-Valley held a 17-15 lead in the third set before Erica Nettles took one of Maura Bentz’s 19 assists in the match to record one of her eight kills.
That put the Battlin’ Miners’ Lauren Womer behind the service line. Two hitting errors by Tri-Valley and Womer’s ace put the Miners ahead to stay.
Helped by several serve-receive errors early in the fourth set, Minersville took a 7-2 lead and never allowed Tri-Valley to get closer than two points the rest of the way.
“We kept putting it to their front line,” Scheib said about several easy kills by Minersville when the Dawgs returned serve right to the net. “We kept saying, ‘Push it back. Push it back (from the net).’ We have been working on that, to tell you the truth, but then they get out (on the court) and then they’re afraid.”
In addition to her kills, Nettles had 10 digs and three aces. Bentz added eight digs while Alexis Huntzinger posted eight kills. Libero Meg Schwalm had 33 digs and two aces.
For Tri-Valley, setter Reagan Newswanger recorded 31 assists, while Cat Troutman had seven kills.
Tri-Valley won the junior varsity match 2-0.