Volleyball: Earlville pounds Hiawatha in Little Ten meeting

Red Raiders move to 5-0, 2-0 in LTC with easy 2-set win over Hawks

Earlville Red Raiders logo

EARLVILLE – Throughout its first five matches of the newly minted volleyball season, the Earlville squad has simply been dynamic in all aspects of the game.

After Thursday evening’s 25-13, 25-11 thrashing of Little Ten Conference foe Hiawatha, the Red Raiders proved they should be a force to be reckoned with as the year rolls along, having now been victorious in 10 consecutive sets while allowing a scant 14.4 points per game to date raising their overall record to a perfect 5-0 and 2-0 on the LTC ledger.

“The girls have been working hard with our serve receive being great and so has our serving defense along with every aspect of our game so far,” said Earlville coach Tonya Scherer. “We were pretty successful last spring during the Covid-shortened season, so I was really excited coming into this fall with basically the same group of girls. They’re all very motivated and athletic, and they showed that again tonight with another solid victory to start the year.”

The Red Raiders received balanced efforts from sophomore standout Nevaeh Sansone who led the way with seven kills, eight points, and four aces. Seniors Brynn Guelde (6 kills, 7 points, 2 aces), Liz Browder (6 kills, 2 aces), and Emma Benson (19 assists) also added to the winning mix.

Sophomore Brooklyn Guelde also contributed in a big way with eight points and two aces.

Hiawatha (2-2, 0-2) could never gain any traction against Earlville’s solid performance, registering only five attack points on the night. Sophomore Brooklyn Rylko led the Hawk’s limited offense with two serving points, one ace, and a kill. Hiawatha’s only other tallies came via either hitting or serving errors by the Red Raiders,

“We were our own worst enemy tonight being only one and done on serve during the whole match which was very frustrating.” said HHS coach Jason Haack. “Our communication fell apart this evening against a very good Earlville team. Hopefully, we can get things back on track after losing two really tough conference games this week against Newark and Earlville.”

The Red Raiders bolted out to a big 19-10 lead in the first set before Browder took to the service line and fired off two consecutive aces to put Earlville up 11. Brooklyn Guelde ended the first game with four consecutive service points as Browder put a stamp on the opening set with a kill in the back court that gave the Red Raiders a 1-0 lead.

“Emma (Benson) gave me some great sets and I like to get big hits like that,” Browder said. “We took it into game two and struggled a little bit to get started but then we finally came alive again and closed it out like we’ve been doing so far this year.”

With Earlville up 7-5 in the second set, Sansone took to the serving line and reeled off seven consecutive tallies, including three aces, to put the Red Raiders up by nine.

“As a sophomore it’s really encouraging for me to be on a great team like this being with the close family that we have here,” Sansone said. “That was a nice serving run for me and it really put us in a position to get another big win to start our season.”

All that was left was for Earlville to outscore Hiawatha 11-6 down the stretch, with Browder nailing a right side kill followed by a Hawk hitting error on match point.