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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Southwood volleyball team’s coach may be imitated, but his team is rarely duplicated.
The Class 2A, No. 2 Lady Knights rolled into Rochester and routed the Lady Zs 25-9, 25-11, 25-6 at the RHS gym to improve to 11-0 overall and 2-0 in the Three Rivers Conference.
Their rivalry is storied – Rochester and Southwood have combined for 49 sectional and 19 regional titles – but the plaudits were one-sided this time.
“You can’t be too mad about it,” Rochester coach Laneia Strasser, a 2002 Rochester grad, said. “Because, I mean, it’s Southwood, and Southwood’s good. I would say this is the best team that Finicle has probably ever had. I don’t know that he can get much better than this.”
Brailyn Hunter and Amara Wieringa had three kills each to lead Rochester. Aubrey Wilson had six assists and 12 digs. Mia Howdeshell had 17 serves received, and Logyn Honkomp had 11.
Shania Rhamy, Southwood’s gravity-defying sophomore, had 14 kills and 10 serves received. Grace Drake and Adi Deaton had 14 assists each out of a two-setter system.
Strasser again bemoaned the passing that plagued them in its previous match against Peru, a loss in five sets. Despite a week to prepare for Southwood, the problems resurfaced.
“I was disappointed in our serve-received,” Strasser said. “I keep going back to this… but I say if you can’t pass the ball, you can’t do anything else.
“And you know Southwood is going to bring it. They’re going to bring it at your face, and then they’re going to drop it short. And we practiced that all week, and we practice every aspect of serve-received, and that’s where we struggle. … If you can’t pass the ball, it doesn’t matter what we do anywhere else because you can’t do anything without the pass.”
Meanwhile, Finicle praised his team’s service pressure.
“I think that was probably the key to it,” Finicle said. “If we could bring that pressure, we can kinda limit what you can do, and I think that’s what we were able to do tonight. We kept them at least where the setter, who can dump whenever she cotton-pickin’ wants… We kept them off the net, and that was beneficial to us.”
Strasser said that the team’s hitters are “starting to bring the power,” and she also praised sophomore setter Wilson’s ability to find the hitters.
“Aubs is more dialed in with them and giving them better pins,” Strasser said. “That is just the biggest struggle to me – the lack of serve-receiving tonight.”
As for Finicle, he might be more well-known than any other opposing coach of any sport in the conference, and his rivalry with former coach Katie Felke is the basis for a deep respect of Rochester volleyball.
“I heard where she had a camp where she had like 65 kids out,” Finicle said. “It’s going to come back. There’s no way it’s not going to come back. She’s one of Katie’s kids, and she’ll make it happen again. They’ll be back on it again.”
And because of how well-known he is, the Rochester student section held “Tom Finicle Night.” Students dressed up in Finicle’s trademark red polo shirt and wore fake mustaches. Finicle posed for photos with the students after the match.
He cackled when asked about it later.
“Well, we had it a couple times at our place too but never with the enthusiasm those guys had,” Finicle said. “They were a lot of fun. And we were talking about this earlier. I always enjoy coming up here because it’s always something up here. It’s always something. The kids are always involved. There’s always a theme night. They were a lot of fun. Those guys were a lot of fun.”
Southwood def. Rochester, 25-9, 25-11, 25-6
ROCHESTER STATS
Darah Strasser – 2 kills, 5 digs, 1 assist, 8 serves received; Aubrey Wilson – 1 kill, 1 ace, 12 digs, 6 assists; Brailyn Hunter – 3 kills, 1 dig, 7 serves received; Amara Wieringa – 3 kills, 3 digs, 3 serves received; Audrey Bolinger – 1 kill, 1 block, 1 dig, 1 assist; Logyn Honkomp – 3 digs, 1 assist, 11 serves received; Rylee Clevenger – 3 digs, 7 serves received; Mia Howdeshell – 3 digs, 1 assist, 17 serves received
