Pressure, what Pressure? Erie-Prophetsown continues to thrive at Princeton

As undefeated, defending champions, Erie-Prophetstown was pegged once again as the team to beat in Three Rivers East volleyball this season.

That added pressure doesn’t seem to bother the Panthers at all.

The Panthers continued to thrive, defeating host Princeton 25-13, 25-15 at Prouty Gym Monday night, winning going away in both sets.

E-P coach Rachael Bramm said her girls have handled any additional pressure that goes with being the conference favorite well.

“I think the girls have done a great job,” she said. “I know a lot of times when you’re the team to beat and have a target on your back, the pressure can overtake you and negatively impact you. I think the girls have taken it as a motivating factor and used it to kind of drive them to do better this year.”

E-P (18-2) moved to 6-0 atop the Three Rivers East. The Tigresses fell to 11-8, 4-2 in second place in the Three Rivers East.

“E-P is a pretty solid team. It wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but it showed us what we need to work on and be able to come together as a team,” Princeton senior setter Makayla Hecht said. “They played really well and we weren’t playing our game we usually do. We just need to learn from it and be better for our next game.”

Both games were close only for a bit.

The Panthers sided out on a kill by Ashlyn Johnson for a 12-7 lead in the first set and Kaylee Keegan capped a 4-point run with an ace to serve them to a 16-7 edge.

E-P sided out again at 21-13 and Shelby Hodgett served out for the 25-13 win.

In Game 2, Hecht used a nifty left-handed kill to side out on the way to a 6-5 Tigresses lead. Keegan served up nine straight points for the Panthers, including kills by Eden Jensen and Kayler Pritchard, to take a 15-6 lead.

Princeton managed to put a small dent in the Panthers’ lead with Keighley Davis blocking for a sideout at 17-9 with two kills by Caroline Keutzer, one by Davis and an ace by Hecht drew the Tigresses within 21-14.

Jensen soon put the finishes touches on the E-P victory with a spike for a 25-15 winner.

Princeton senior Camryn Driscoll makes a pass against E-P Monday night at Prouty Gym. E-P won 25-13, 25-15. (Mike vaughn)

Princeton played E-P to a 25-21, 25-20 match last week, but coach Andy Puck said the Tigresses had no answer for the Panthers this time.

“They’re very, very good,” he said. “They block well. They pass well. They set well. They transition from offense to defense is probably better than anybody we’ve played this season. And they just kept putting the pressure on us.

“We had problems putting the ball away and when you do that you send free balls to them and that’s exactly what they want.

“We didn’t have too many people step up tonight. Caroline really tried. Keighley and Kathy (Maciczek) tried. Makayla finally started barking a little bit. We’ve got a lot of seniors on the floor. We just need more leadership and just got to push back. I think we just kind of took the easy way out, kind of rolled over.”

Bramm, the former Rachel Cobert who played for Erie prior to the co-op, said that kind of dominating win will only boost the Panthers moving forward.

“We’ve been looking for that dominant performance over a solid program,” she said. “We’ve beat good teams and we’ve beat some not so good teams and everything, but just to be in complete control the entire time against a decent program it felt good.”

Keutzer led the Tigresses with six kills with Ava Kyle serving for six points and an ace while Lawson had a team-high six digs and Camryn Driscoll, Kyle and Hecht adding five digs apiece.

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