Volleyball: Marquette, Putnam County survive slow starts, advance at Tri-County

SENECA – It seems both of the higher seeds in action on the first night of the Tri-County Conference tournament had a little trouble getting off the bus, but once they recovered from those slow starts, it was business as usual.

The No. 1-seeded Marquette Crusaders started trailed unseeded Dwight 11-9 before fighting to a 14-13 lead in the opening set. However, the Cru rebounded behind a four-point run by Lindsey Kaufmann to close the set, then got huge bursts at the service line from Kaylee Killelea and Kaufmann in the second to come away with a 25-19, 25-12 victory at Seneca.

Earlier, No. 4 seed Putnam County dropped the first set and trailed 21-7 in the second before rallying to defeat No. 5 seed Henry-Senachwine.

Those decisions set up Wednesday’s slate, with Henry (14-15) facing Dwight (4-19) in the consolation bracket semifinals at 5 p.m., followed at 6:15 by Marquette (21-6) vs. Putnam County (14-9-3).

The other half of the bracket will play Tuesday night, with No. 2 Woodland taking on No. 7 Roanoke-Benson at 5 p.m., then No. 3 Seneca against No. 6 Midland at 6:15. The losers of those clashes will meet at 7:30 that night.

The top-seeded Crusaders looked like anything but in the first set, Dwight taking leads of 10-8 and 11-9 before a pair of Lauren Machetta points put them on top for good. A Mary Lechtenberg sideout kill and a four-point, two-ace rally by Kaufmann put the Cru up 21-14.

“We were still in Ottawa when the game started, and we were walking here. All facets were ugly,” Marquette coach Mindy McConnaughhay said. “We absolutely struggled all the first set to make anything happen. It was all slow and nobody was talking. … Thankfully, we finally woke up and at least we looked awake in the second set. I’m going to blame being out of school, sleeping in and sitting around on the couch at home all day watching TV for the way things started out.

“We’ve been focusing on serving more aggressively all weekend and when we finally did it right, it worked out well. Lindsey had a nice run in the second set that got us going. … Credit Dwight. They came out big in the first set and played scrappy all night.”

In the second set, it was all Marquette serving. During Killelea’s eight-point burst, she had three aces and Lechtenberg three kills, then it was 11-5 when Kaufmann came on to serve 10 straight, two on aces and four on two kills each by Eva McCallum and Lilly Craig.

Kills by Makayla Backos, Maisie Lyons and Jaida Pitts helped close the win.

“We started very scrappy tonight against a very good Marquette team that has awesome ball control,” said Dwight coach Steven Lopez, whose team defeated Lowpoint-Washburn in three sets earlier Monday to get to the Marquette match. “Coming in, we knew we were gonna have to play defense and be ready for every single point and we hung with them pretty well for being as undersized as we were.

“They got on a roll serving in the second set, and that made a big difference. It took us awhile to cushion that first pass, and we did better at it, but not well enough.”

The Panthers tipped with success in the first set, but six service errors and Henry’s adjustment to tipping itself helped the Mallards turn a 10-9 edge into a 21-16 margin on a kill by Abby Stanbary.

Although PC raced to leads of 9-4 and 13-6, four points by Stanbary later tied it at 15 before a big block and then a kill by Maggie Richetta helped close the set.

“I honestly don’t think they had a chance once we got a pass and ran an offense,” PC coach Amy Bell said. “In the first set, we were helter-skelter and out of system a ton. My setter was not touching the ball as much as she normally does, so we had to tip. … When we started getting passes where they were supposed to be, we could run a quick offense and swing aggressively. Honestly, as the match went on, we really just settled in.

“I always say that the matches on days when the girls are not in school are the toughest ones. We slept through the first set, but then we woke up and became the aggressive team I’ve seen all year.”

In the third game, Ava Hatton’s eight-point service run opened a 15-9 Panthers lead. A Talur Homann kill got Henry as close as 20-16 before a pair of Richetta aces ended the threat.

“Over the weekend, we didn’t block well and did close out blocks, so that was our goal tonight because when we do, the result is a lot of tipping,” Henry coach Rita Self said. “That was the case, we expected it and adjusted to it, but we just weren’t smart in all scenarios. We weren’t taking advantage of matchups when we got down, keeping the ball away from their bigger girls in certain rotations.

“We don’t see a lot of the quicks run very successfully and we didn’t block them at all at the end. I guess we weren’t prepared for those.”