Brian Hagberg
RUSSELL, Pa. – Maplewood cleaned up most of its serving issues from its previous match and rolled to a 3-0 (25-12, 25-10, 25-14) win at Eisenhower.
Rewatch the game:
Maggie Means was particularly strong at the service line, serving long runs in each set, including seven straight points in the first, and six aces on her way to earning Allegheny Grille of Foxburg Player of the Match honors.
“I had a bad serving night against Meadville so I was wanting to redeem myself,” Means said during the Cole Orthodontic Associates postgame interview. “We still got some errors, but I think it was good that we also played while we served, it wasn’t just the serving game. Everybody stepped in and played their part.”
See Means’ full Cole Orthodontic Associates postgame interview
After a back-and-forth start to the first set, Means went to the service line with Maplewood leading 11-9. The Tigers scored the next seven points to take an 18-9 lead on their way to a 25-12 set win.
“We can be competitive with Maplewood and I’m looking forward to our next meeting,” Eisenhower coach Lori Pascuzzi said. “Tonight we had too many unforced errors. Our service percentage was way down. Our serve reception was decent against some very tough Maplewood servers. We had a lot of great plays at the net and played a scrappy game. We need to work on moving our feet and communication.”
Caroline Smyth had five blocks and two kills for the Knights. Emilie Jones had four kills and Lainey Font had three points.
Bree Neely had 10 kills and 6 digs and Elizabeth Hunter had 9 kills. Lexy Potosky had 13 digs and Means ran the offense with 26 assists and added 6 digs.
