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Montoursville girls volleyball beats South in five sets

By GARRETT CARR 3 min read

After stumbling in the second and third sets, Montoursville found themselves in a 2-1 hole at home against South Williamsport on Wednesday evening. But the Warriors responded to their coach's message and played their best volleyball of the evening down the stretch, winning the final two sets to nab a 3-2 win.

"I told them that when you start playing too loosely or too tightly, you're going to struggle. You start playing their game, and they're used to playing that way, but we're not. We're used to playing a more strategic, controlled game, and they kept us out of control," Montoursville coach Ku'uipo Tom said. "We had to discuss that when the ball comes over, it's now in our hands. We have to control the ball and control what we can control.

"They responded to that. But those second and third sets, it was a little bit of us, but it was a lot of South Williamsport, too," Tom continued. "They did an awesome job stepping up and hitting us where we weren't ready to get hit."

An underdog South Williamsport squad definitely came to play, and they hopped out to a big lead in the first set with the help of a Briley Martin 7-0 service run two points into the match. The Mounties led 13-6 at one point in the set, but Montoursville came storming back and took the lead on back-to-back aces by March Manotti.

They closed out the first set on a kill by Laney Yonkin, 25-20.

The second set looked like it would go the way of the Warriors, as they hopped out to an 11-6 lead on another Yonkin kill. But South came storming back, tying the match at 20 and then using back-to-back blocks by Aurora Chilcot to go up 24-20 and eventually win the set, 25-20.

South used an 8-0 serving run by Allison Nolan to take control of the third set, holding off a late Montoursville charge that saw the set tie up at 24 before South Williamsport won the set, 26-24, on a kill from Chilcot.

Montoursville responded to Tom's aforementioned message in a big way in the fourth set, cruising to a 25-16 set win to set up a deciding fifth set.

"We had better ball control, and once we have better ball control, we can control the tempo and speed of the game," Tom said. "Until we get that, it's always going to be problematic. So I was glad to see that they did it."

Montoursville took control of the final set on a kill by Dahlia Campbell to make it 6-2, a pretty large lead in a set played to 15. Back-to-back aces by Yonkin made it 13-6, and the Warriors would close it out two points later, winning the final set 15-6.

Montoursville, in just its second year as a program, looks to be a team that could be a sleeper in the Class AAA field. But Tom is keeping his team focused on what's next.

"Every next game is the biggest game of the year, right? We want to make sure we're prepared for every game and then hope the postseason takes care of itself," he said.

Montoursville 3,

South Williamsport 2

(25-20, 20-25, 24-26, 25-16, 15-6)

Montoursville leaders: Points: Laney Yonkin 20. Kills: Yonkin 14. Assists: Noelle Rzeszotarski 29. Digs: Rzeszotarski 25. Aces: March Manotti 7. Blocks: Allie Eberhart 4.

South Williamsport stats were not made available.

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