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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Rochester volleyball team went 1-3 and finished in 10th place out of 12 teams at the Warsaw Invitational Saturday.
Rochester lost to Fairfield 25-22, 25-22 and Leo 25-7, 25-15 in pool play.
In the place rounds, they rallied from a set down to beat Tippecanoe Valley 18-25, 27-25, 15-11 before losing to West Noble, 25-14, 25-19 in the ninth-place match.
Rochester is 7-16 on the season. They host Wabash for Dig Pink Night tonight.
Senior Night is 6 p.m. Thursday against Winamac.
ROCHESTER TEAM RESULTS
Fairfield def. Rochester, 25-22, 25-22
Leo def. Rochester, 25-7, 25-15
Rochester def, Tippecanoe Valley, 18-25, 27-25, 15-11
West Noble def. Rochester, 25-14, 25-19
ROCHESTER STATS VS. FAIRFIELD
Brailyn Hunter – 7 kills, 11 serves received; Audrey Bolinger – 4 aces; Aubrey Wilson – 5 digs, 13 assists; Darah Strasser – 13 serves received
ROCHESTER STATS VS. LEO
Makenna McKee – 3 kills, 6 serves received; Brailyn Hunter – 3 kills; Audrey Bolinger – 1 ace; Darah Strasser – 6 digs, 9 serves received; Mia Howdeshell – 5 digs; Aubrey Wilson – 9 assists; Rylee Clevenger – 7 serves received
ROCHESTER STATS VS. VALLEY
Audrey Bolinger – 10 kills; Brailyn Hunter – 7 kills, 1 ace; Aubrey Wilson – 1 ace, 8 digs, 20 assists; Mia Howdeshell – 1 ace, 12 serves received; Makenna McKee – 1 block; Avarie Montel – 4 blocks; Darah Strasser – 9 digs, 11 serves received, Maddy Bailon – 13 serves received
ROCHESTER STATS VS. WEST NOBLE
Audrey Bolinger – 5 kills; Brailyn Hunter – 4 kills, 7 digs; Darah Strasser – 3 aces, 6 digs; Logyn Honkomp – 2 aces; Aubrey Wilson – 2 blocks, 7 digs, 13 assists; Rylee Clevenger – 10 serves received; Maddy Bailon – 9 serves received
Rochester def. Northwestern, 25-13, 18-25, 25-11, 23-25, 15-7 (Thursday)
Brailyn Hunter had 20 kills, 20 digs and 12 serves received, and Audrey Bolinger added 16 kills as the Lady Zs rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the fifth set to earn a Three Rivers Conference home win over Northwestern Thursday.
Aubrey Wilson dished out a career-high 45 assists. Her previous career high was 40 against Peru earlier this season.
But this might have been the breakout performance for Hunter.
“Oh, come on, that was amazing, wasn’t it?” Rochester coach Laneia Strasser said of Hunter. “That’s the player that we see in practice, and I think everybody got to see it today in a game. Her sheer power, it’s there. It’s there and it’s exciting. She played great. She covered great, and I played her all the way around, and that’s something that was new to her.”
Darah Strasser added five aces, 14 digs and 13 serves received. She had three aces in a four-point span during a 9-0 run in the fifth set that gave Rochester a 12-5 lead.
Rochester’s final three points came on two service errors and a kill error.
“They didn’t give up, and our girls didn’t give up either,” coach Strasser said. “I think we won quite a few really, really long volleys, and that takes a lot out of a team. That helps take some of that stamina out of the other team when you win those long volleys.”
Other contributors included junior Avarie Montel, who had three blocks; freshman Maddy Bailon, who had 13 digs and 14 serves received; senior Mia Howdeshell, who had 11 digs and 11 serves received; and senior Rylee Clevenger, who had 13 serves received.
Rochester got within 21-20 in the fourth set after kills from Montel and Bolinger, but Northwestern got four straight sideouts to close out the set and force a fifth.
Northwestern then scored the first three points of the fifth set. Coach Strasser called timeout. On the first point after the timeout, Lexi Closson delivered an ace.
But then the Lady Zs forced a kill error, and a Bolinger tip and a Bolinger kill helped cut the lead to 4-3.
“I just told them it starts with the pass, and they started passing the ball,” coach Strasser said. “I said, ‘You’ve to envision that pass. You do it all the time.’ And they made it happen. They put the ball in the right hands of the girls that were on fire at the right time too.”
Howdeshell missed on a flat-footed kill try, but Darah Strasser went down the middle for a kill before her serving frenzy.
“As a team, we just knew we were capable of winning that game,” Darah Strasser said of the fifth-set comeback. “And we weren’t letting up. You could tell that we were in it to win it, and we weren’t going to lose even though we were down four. I don’t think anybody was like, ‘Oh no, we’re going to lose.’ Everybody felt confident that we could come back.”
Darah Strasser said staying positive was a key. Rochester came into this match on a five-match losing streak and had won only one set in those five matches.
“It’s a team sport, so I can’t take really take things personally,” Darah said. “But to a point, when you lose so much, it can drag you down, but you just have to stay positive. But yeah, team sport, in it for the team, play as a team, win as a team, lose as a team.”
Rochester def. Northwestern, 25-13, 18-25, 25-11, 23-25, 15-7
ROCHESTER STATS
Darah Strasser – 5 kills, 5 aces, 14 digs, 13 serves received; Aubrey Wilson – 4 kills, 2 aces, 2 blocks, 5 digs, 45 assists, 3 serves received; Avarie Montel – 3 kills, 3 blocks, 2 digs; Maddy Bailon – 2 kills, 1 block, 13 digs, 1 assist, 14 serves received; Brailyn Hunter – 20 kills, 2 aces, 1 block, 20 digs, 2 assists, 12 serves received; Audrey Bolinger – 16 kills, 4 aces, 2 blocks, 8 digs; Mia Howdeshell – 1 ace, 11 digs, 1 assist, 11 serves received; Rylee Clevenger – 3 digs, 13 serves received; Amara Wieringa – 4 digs, 1 serve received
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