Girls volleyball: Ottawa rights the ship, topples Streator in three

OTTAWA – In its season opener against an intense rival in the Streator Bulldog Spikers in front of a loud and boisterous crowd, it wasn’t all that surprising the Ottawa volleyball squad was a little off its game and dropped the opening set.

But it didn’t take much for them to right that Pirates ship.

After Streator’s back-row defense shined in its first-game victory, Ottawa’s Olivia Evola started the second game with just a little four-point service run. It wasn’t that much, but that was enough to remind the Pirates what they’re capable of and send them to a 14-25, 25-15, 25-15 victory over their rivals to the south at Kingman Gym on Thursday night.

Improved serve-receive, aggressive serving and more consistent hitting over the final two sets shook the Bulldogs’ confidence and set them back on their heels just a bit, and that opened the hosts’ window of opportunity in the comeback, three-set thriller.

“We needed that run to start the second game, for sure,” Ottawa coach Jenn Crum said. “These girls can do good things together, play clean, hard volleyball, so I know that they could overcome that first game. We just had to tweak a few things and step it up.

“The biggest difference between the first set and the last two was our serve-receive, 100%. Our defensive serve-receive had to wake up a bit at the beginning, and that took us out of system a lot, and our hitters were just slamming balls out of bounds for a while. … But once the serve-receive and the defense got it together a little more, woke up a bit back there, things started jelling very nicely.”

The visitors were the aggressors at the start, Emma Rambo serving up the game’s first five points, four on OHS hitting errors and a passing error. Though Evola served the next six points to get the home club back in front, Streator (1-2) remained pesky enough, digging everything in sight to reclaim the edge.

Four points by Emma Graves opened up a 16-10 SHS lead, a margin it maintained until an Alexa Jacobs shoot for sideout and four points by Rilee Talty (21 digs) closed out the set.

The Pirates needed a shot in the arm and got it from Evola’s mini-run. While the more aggressive serving kept Streator from getting into its offense, a kill by Ayla Dorsey widened the advantage to 8-2, three points from Ryleigh Stevenson (seven kills) made it 13-7, and three more points by Alyssa Malmassari took it to 21-13.

In the deciding set, the Pirates continued to roll, and Streator continued to struggle with its passing. OHS erased a 3-1 deficit with a Skylar Dorsey kill and a game-changing six-point burst from Mel Pries (six kills) for an 8-3 edge. Three more from Skylar Dorsey, two from Stevenson and back-to-back kills by Ayla Dorsey and Evola created a 17-7 Ottawa lead.

Streator would get no closer than eight the rest of the way.

“In the second game, [Ottawa] was more aggressive on their serves and we started to struggle a little bit, then we let that get in our head,” Bulldog Spikers coach Julie Gabehart said. “They continued to serve aggressively, but we are really a very solid passing team, and that has been our strength. We just didn’t trust ourselves, began to second guess who was taking the next hit. … (Ottawa) came out fighting, and we just got a little too timid. That happens a little more at the beginning of the season, but having a short memory is an important thing in volleyball.

“When you play good teams like this, I told the girls, ‘Don’t get flustered when things are tight,’ because we expected it to be close, and we struggled with that a little. When things got tight, we got tight. We need to trust what we do, even when it’s tight.”

Both teams will return to Kingman on Saturday to participate in the annual Ottawa Invitational.