Girls volleyball: Fulton pulls away to top Polo

POLO – Once Fulton got its offense rolling, there wasn’t much Polo could do to slow it down.

After tight starts to each set in Thursday night’s NUIC South match, the Steamers pulled away in both for a 25-16, 25-15 win over the host Marcos.

“I think the confidence goes though the roof with the players we have out there. With a little bit of humbleness, it’s a deadly combo,” senior middle Ava Bowen said. “It’s just being confident and having fun.”

[ Photos from Fulton at Polo volleyball ]

Polo (5-6, 2-1 NUIC South) led 3-2 in each set, but Fulton (9-1, 3-0) took over from there. An ace by Kali Brewer and kills by Olivia Knott and Annaka Hackett made it 11-5 in the first set, then Brooklyn Brennan had a block and a kill on back-to-back points for an 18-9 lead. Hackett had three kills and a block in the final five points for Fulton.

She credited the Steamers’ back row as making the difference in this one.

“Passing is always the first step, 100%. To hit a middle ball, you have to have a good pass first so you can get set up; the first pass always has to be good to run that offense,” said Hackett, who had nine kills, two blocks and four digs. “When there’s a good pass, the middles are so thankful.”

Playing without their usual second setter, the Steamers didn’t miss a beat. Brewer, a junior, stepped in for senior Miraya Pessman, who is dealing with a leg injury, and finished with seven assists, two kills, five digs, a block and an ace.

Brewer was the setter for the sophomore team last year but moved to DS at the beginning of the season.

“One of our setters is out, so we had a backup setter, and she did a really good job adjusting to all of our different hits,” Hackett said. “She definitely stepped up and out of her comfort zone. She used to set, but she hasn’t done it for a while, but she did really well coming back.”

“The key to getting everyone involved is having good communication,” Bowen said. “Kali, she didn’t set previously this year, and she came in and did a great job filling in and just communicating, being on good terms, letting everyone know where they’re hitting.”

Kills by Knott and Hackett and two spikes by Brennan helped Fulton open an 11-5 lead in the second set. A kill by Courtney Grobe and an ace by Ellie Wells cut the Polo deficit to 13-10, but a kill and back-to-back blocks by Bowen, then a kill by Brewer pushed the Steamers lead back to 17-10.

Hackett and Haley Smither had kills around a pair of Reese Dykstra aces, and Hackett again finished off the set and match with a final kill.

Brennan had 13 assists, five digs, three kills and a block, and libero Resse Germann chipped in nine digs for Fulton.

“Our passing was really on tonight. We’ve been working hard at practice, and it really paid off. We were able to set our middles a lot more,” Brennan said. “We have a lot of strong hitters, and it’s really nice as a setter. Even if I have an off set, they’re able to get the ball and still get a kill from it. I’m just able to rely on them a lot.”

Sydnei Rahn and Bridget Call each had three kills, and Call also led the way with eight digs for the Marcos. Grobe finished with six digs, two kills and an ace; Camrynn Jones added six digs and five assists; Wells had four assists, two digs and two aces; and libero Madison Glawe chipped in five digs.

“Coach always says it starts with the pass, and we spend a decent amount of time on our serve receive, so we just have to keep working on that. It was just a bad day passing,” Grobe said. “Sydnei’s kills off their overpasses were big for us early, and we have some good hitters in the front row, we just couldn’t get them going tonight. But as long as we get our passing down, we should do pretty well the rest of the season and into the postseason.”