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Trojans sweep final match

Tenacity lifts Mount Union to victory

Sentinel photo by MATT STRICKER
Mount Union’s Morgan Brumbaugh, center, hits the ball between Fannett-Metal’s Sydney Bartley, left, and Hailey Hill Monday in Mount Union.

MOUNT UNION — Mount Union ended the volleyball season on a high note, getting a 3-0 win over Fannett-Metal in a nonleague match on senior night.

The game scores were 25-10, 25-17 and 25-16.

The first set could not have gone better for the Trojans. Led by a service run by Destinie Myers, Mount Union took an early 9-1 lead. The Trojans were excelling at digging out any kills that the Tigers sent over the net. Fannett-Metal only recorded one kill in the first set; the Trojans tallied nine.

The Mount Union offense was efficiently systematic as well with mostly every possesion going dig, set, kill.

With the offense running smoothing and the defense playing sharply, the Trojans did not allow the Tiger offense to get any real momenum. Whenever Fannett-Metal scored a point, Mount Union responded with a point or two of its own.

An ace from Camille Posey capped off an 11-6 run by the Trojans, giving the home team a 25-10 win in the first set. The Trojans used nine aces in the first set to bury the Tigers.

Coach Tessa McCormick noticed that in the first set, her team wasn’t relying too heavily on hitting the ball hard, but more on the finesse shots and focusing on not making unforced errors.

“Instead of going up and trying to pound the ball, I think when we started placing the ball more strategically, it gave us a little more confidence,” McCormick said.

The next two sets, however, did not go as smoothly for the Trojans as the first. Fannett-Metal refused to roll over and battled Mount Union the rest of the match.

The Tigers got out to an early 2-0 lead, but the Trojans responded with a 5-0 run of their own, retaking the lead. It was then the Tigers who put a nice run together, taking a 6-5 lead.

The Trojans did a great job of setting up Myers and Posey at the net, but the Tiger defense played much better in the second set. The rest of the set consisted of the Trojans taking a multiple point lead, only to see the Tigers close the gap to within a point.

With the set at 17-16 in favor of the Trojans Morgan Brumbaugh went on a service run that gave the Trojans a 23-16 lead and some breathing room.

Posey ended the second set with a perfectly placed teardrop of a shot over the net, securing a 25-17 win.

“In that second set, a lot of their points were scored by our unforced errors,” McCormick said. “It was just us, offensively, making mistakes and they (Fannett-Metal) started to pick up with their offense.”

The third set played out much like the second. Neither team was able to pull away from the other, as the Trojans and Tigers traded points. The third set saw six lead changes and five ties.

Another Posey teardrop shot gave the Trojans a 13-10 lead, the biggest of the set for them. It was Brumbaugh again who went on a service run, using back-to-back aces to spark the offense. When Brumbaugh’s run ended, the Trojans had a 17-11 lead.

Fannett-Metal tried to stage a comeback but its efforts fell short. A shot into the net sealed the Tigers’ fate as the Trojans completed the sweep, winning the third set 25-16.

The Trojans played well in all facets of the game, tallying more kills, 34 to 11, and more aces, 18 to 2, than the Tigers.

Posey finished the night with 13 kills, Myers had 19 assists and Kaitlin Arnold made 10 digs. Brumbaugh had two critical service runs for the Trojans that came when they most needed them. As a team, Mount Union served especially well.

“(We are) a team that has always has served aggressively,” McCormick said. “This year, that was one of their goals, to really be a weapon behind the service line and I think we definitely did that tonight.”

Despite a few bumps in the road throughout the season, McCormick was pleased that her girls got a win to end the season, especially for the seniors on the team.

“It was one of those nights, very rarely lately, that there wasn’t one area where we were really lacking,” McCormick said. “Everything kind of jelled together. I was just really happy they had the senior night win in their last game, to close out the season.”

Mount Union 3, Fannett-Metal 0

Scores: 25-10, 25-17, 25-16

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