Sterling celebrates seniors, league title with victory

STERLING – With the NIB-12 West title already in hand, and the always emotional Senior Night on the minds of the Sterling Golden Warriors, Tuesday night’s conference and regular-season finale against Ottawa could have been somewhat of an afterthought.

But the Warrior seniors weren’t about to fall into any kind of trap. They sprinted out to big leads early in both sets at Musgrove Fieldhouse, and quickly finished off a 25-11, 25-14 victory over the Pirates.

“We were pretty amped up for Senior Night,” Mya Pearson said, “but we wanted to make sure we played as hard as we could, focused on the match and left everything out on the court. It means a lot that the rest of our team played so hard for us tonight, too.”

“We knew it was going to be emotional,” added libero-turned-hitter Olivia Pilgrim, wiping tears from her eyes, “but we told each other in the huddle before the match that we were going to go out there with the same intensity we’ve had all season and make it a really worthwhile final match.”

Fittingly, each of Sterling’s five seniors got involved in the first few points of the match. Kaylee Martin started things with an ace, then Mya Pearson’s kill for a sideout put Miranda Williams back at the service line.

Williams reeled off five straight points – one on a Pearson kill, another on a kill by senior Tobi Garcia – and Pilgrim had a couple of early digs to set up those kills.

“It’s sad, but it feels good at the same time,” Williams said. “We’ve played together for 8 or 9 years, and we’ve become so close in that time and through all those matches. But it was really good to get a win in our last one together on this court.”

Ottawa (3-21-1, 1-6) never got closer than four points the rest of the first set. A Garcia kill made it 13-8, then back-to-back kills by Pearson pushed the lead to 16-9. A Martin spike made it 19-11, and provided the first of seven straight Pearson points to close out the opening set, including an ace to finish it off.

Kills by Martin and Pearson made it 5-1 to open the second set, then a block and a kill by Pearson finished off a four-point run by Martin for a 10-3 lead. A Sterling hitting error brought the Pirates within 11-7, but Pearson slammed another kill for a sideout, then went back to the service line and reeled off 10 straight points as Sterling (28-5-1, 8-0) took complete control – especially when the Pirates got flustered with some rotation and lineup issues and were unable to right the ship.

Pilgrim took off the libero jersey for the second set and went through a full rotation, spiking a pair of kills in Pearson’s serving run.

“I knew he was going to let me play in the front row, but I didn’t know I’d get any kills,” said Pilgrim, who was an outside hitter when she was younger before moving full-time to the back row. “I was super nervous – I didn’t even know the handshake to do before the serve – and I hit the first one so hard it went way out of bounds. I told Josi [Borum] not to set me anymore, but she did anyway, and I got one kill, then another. I’m so proud of myself for remembering what to do as a hitter.”

Garcia added her final kill in the run as well, and it only stopped when it was Pearson’s turn to get the ovation as coach Dale Dykeman substituted for his seniors one at a time, starting with Williams and ending with Martin – the program’s all-time kill leader and multiple Warrior record holder.

Nobody for Ottawa finished with more than one kill, and Molly Harris led the way with six assists and three points. Lexi Fahrion and Gracyn Tabor both had a kill and a block.

“We got confused in the second set, and then we got flustered, but I told the girls we still have to get to the right spots on the court and play volleyball,” Ottawa coach Michele Masny said. “But you have to give a lot of credit to Sterling; they have a couple of big hitters, and they all took aggressive swings tonight.”

Pearson finished with 17 points and 10 kills, and Martin added six points, five kills and nine digs. Borum set 23 assists to go with two tip-kills and a block, and Pilgrim had 11 digs and two kills, Garcia spiked four kills, Williams finished with six points, and sophomore Gretchen Gould chipped in three kills.

“There were a lot of emotions tonight, and we fed off it,” Pearson said. “We took the momentum and never gave it up, and once we got that early lead and got all the nerves out, we just had a lot of fun.”

The celebration actually started Monday night, when the Warriors went to LaSalle and beat the Cavaliers in three sets to secure the NIB-12 West title outright. That had the Sterling players in great mood already, and finishing a perfect 8-0 in the conference while getting ovations for each senior only made it that much sweeter.

“We went out [Monday] and got done what we needed to, and that took all the pressure off us,” Williams said. “It was great to see everybody play in the match tonight and just finish things off on such a high note.”

“We achieved something [Monday] night that we’ve been pushing so hard for all year,” Pilgrim added, “and tonight we wanted to celebrate that – and actually keeping that zero in the loss column for conference is a great way to finish the regular season.”

Volleyball

Sterling def. Ottawa 25-11, 25-14

Star of the match: Mya Pearson, Sterling, 17 points, 10 kills

Key performers: Kaylee Martin, Sterling, 5 kills, 6 points, 9 digs; Tobi Garcia, Sterling, 4 kills; Olivia Pilgrim, Sterling, 11 digs, 2 kills; Miranda Williams, Sterling, 6 points

Up next: Class 3A Rock Falls Regional semifinal, Sterling vs. Kewanee/Geneseo, 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25