Warren's Maddy Jones. File photo by Brian Hagberg.

Warren Drops Hard-Fought Battle to Meadville

October 21, 2022

WARREN, Pa. – In what could potentially be a District 10 semifinal preview, Meadville earned a 3-1 (25-20, 25-20, 22-25, 25-23) win at Warren on Thursday.

The Bulldogs (11-3 overall, 7-1 Region 5) won the first two sets before the Dragons (10-4, 5-3) took the third. Warren nearly forced a fifth set, but a timeout with the set tied at 23-23 stopped Warren’s momentum and Meadville closed out the set to win the match.

Rewatch the game:

Neither team was able to gain firm control through most of the first set. Meadville went on a 4-0 run to take an 18-13 lead, but Warren scored the next two points to cut the deficit to three. The Bulldogs answered with a 6-1 run to get to set point. A service error gave Warren life and the Dragons got to 20 points.

It looked like Warren’s Kylie Fehlman had a block on Meadville’s Emma Parks, but Parks was able to get her hand on the ball as it was coming down and poked it over the net to give the Bulldogs a 25-20 win.

The second set played out almost exactly as the first, with neither team able to gain more than a 2-point advantage until Meadville scored three straight to go ahead 20-16. Warren pulled within two at 21-19, but Parks put down three strong kills, including the final point of the set, to give Meadville a second 25-20 set win and a 2-0 lead in the match.

“It was just a few too many errors in the first twp sets which put us behind the 8-ball,” Warren coach Mike Dolan said. “We certainly battled for each point, especially in the last two sets, and almost forced a 5th set but it was a combination of Meadville attacking more consistently than us and our ball control needing to be better at times.”

The even volleyball continued through the third set as the teams battled to an 18-18 tie. This time, it was Warren that went on a 5-1 run to take a 23-19 lead. Two Dragons errors and two Parks kills cut the Warren lead to 24-22, but Fehlman ended the set with a strong kill to keep the Dragons in the match.

The fourth set found the teams square at 18-18 again. A 5-1 run had the Bulldogs ahead, 23-19. The Dragons responded with a 4-0 run to tie the set at 23-23. Meadville took a timeout and that appeared to halt the Warren momentum. The Dragons were unable to return a Sydney Holt attack after the timeout, and couldn’t corral an Ellie Kellick block as Meadville came away with the 25-23 set victory for the 3-1 match win.

Parks was as advertised again with 29 kills and 10 digs. Holt had nine kills and eight digs, Kendall Mealy had 12 digs, Chae Kennedy served six aces, and Elliott Schleicher ran the Meadville offense with 39 set assists and eight digs.

Maddy Jones and Alexia Bowers each had a double-double for Warren. Jones finished with 12 kills, 13 digs, and two aces, while Bowers had 10 kills and 14 digs. Fehlman had nine kills, Carly Beers had five kills, nine digs, and two aces, Summer Lucks had 22 digs and four aces, Sophie Walker had two digs and two aces, and Lindsay Madigan had 32 set assists and five digs.

“Maddy Jones had a nice all-around game, on defense and attacking,” Dolan said. “At times Kylie Fehlman was really effective at the net with some big-time kills and putting up a big block. Summer Lucks did a nice job at libero as well.”

The win should give Meadville the No. 2 seed behind Conneaut (12-0, 8-0) in the District 10 Class 3A playoffs. Warren is the likely No. 3, which could potentially set up a rematch in the D10 semifinals if both teams win their quarterfinal match.

“It was a big-time effort and pretty high-level volleyball so hopefully it helps prepare us for playoffs where we might end up seeing Meadville again,” Dolan said.

The D10 playoffs begin next week and brackets are expected this weekend.

Warren won the junior varsity match, 26-24, 25-19/

Lilly Newton had 4 kills and 2 aces, Elissa Errett had 4 digs and 4 assists, Allie Lauffenburger had 4 aces and 1 kill, Lauren Fajbik had 2 digs and 2 aces, Sophie Walker had 8 digs and 1 ace, Maddie Nosel had 4 kills, 4 digs, and 1 ace, and Delaney Wright had 9 assists.

         

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