Volleyball: Dixon outlasts rival Sterling in season opener

DIXON – Facing off against a rival always adds a little extra juice to the season opener. Tuesday’s match between Dixon and Sterling did not disappoint.

The Duchesses and Golden Warriors treated the fans to three thrilling sets, with Dixon pulling out a 25-23, 24-26, 25-16 Tuesday victory at Lancaster Gym.

[ Photos from Sterling at Dixon volleyball ]

“It’s amazing to win this first match,” Dixon senior hitter Madyson Tichler said. “It sets the tone for the season, sets the bar real high.”

The Duchesses (1-0) set the tone from the start. Leah Carlson’s ace gave Dixon a 6-0 lead, then Tichler reeled off three aces in a six-point surge that made it 13-1.

“It was crazy. Our momentum was going, we had everybody here cheering us on, and it was great,” junior hitter Morgan Hargrave said. “We knew from the beginning that we wanted to start off really strong, which we did, then we didn’t get down on ourselves when we made mistakes. We let them come back a little, but we got back in a groove, won that first set, and we just kept rolling.”

Sterling (0-1) had the answer in the form of libero Macy Anderson. The senior went on a service run of her own, rattling off four aces in a seven-point string that included a pair of Carley Sullivan kills to cut the deficit to 13-9.

Dixon later got a kill and a point from senior Makenzie Toms to stretch the lead back to 18-12, but back-to-back Marley Sechrest aces cut it to 18-15. After kills by Dixon’s Carlson and Hargrave, Natalie Eddinger had a kill and Alasia Harris Rascon served an ace to get Sterling within 22-20.

Senior setter Delali Amankwa dumped a second-touch kill, and Dixon hit it out of bounds to make it 24-23, but Tichler closed the set with a kill as the Duchesses held on.

“I think it was just shaking off the first-game jitters,” Amankwa said of the slow start. “We have a lot of young players without a lot of varsity experience coming up this year, and it was just getting everybody into the groove and finding that chemistry again. I feel like in the first few points, we were a little bit like, ‘Whoa, OK, let’s go.’ We just had a reset moment, and then just started building momentum and persevering.”

After scoring 22 of the final 34 points in the first set, the Warriors jumped out to a 9-3 lead to open the second set, and still led 20-15 as they tried to force the decisive third set.

But Dixon rallied behind a kill from Carlson and a block from Tichler. Then three straight points from Tichler on Sterling errors gave the Duchesses match point at 24-23.

Not to be denied, the Warriors reeled off three points to win the set on another service run by Anderson – including her sixth ace – to extend the match.

“We were just doing what we could in the down moments, and we had a lot of girls make good hustle plays for us tonight,” Amankwa said. “I feel like we’ll take the positives away, but I think collectively we know we’re a better team than that. We’ll just learn from the negatives and turn them into positives.”

Again momentum reigned, as Dixon stayed hot to start the final set and jumped out to a 6-2 lead; that opening salvo included a pair of Hargrave aces, an Isabelle Queckboerner kill, and an ace from Toms.

An ace from Sechrest and three Dixon errors cut Sterling’s deficit to 9-8, but Dixon got another ace from Hargrave and a tip-kill from Carlson to push the margin back to 14-9. A Sullivan kill and a pair of Duchesses errors got the score to 15-13, but an ace by Tichler and a combo block from Queckboerner and Lucy Fike stretched the Dixon lead back to 19-13.

Hargrave served the final three points, including her fourth ace, and Tichler’s block finished off the Dixon win.

“Volleyball’s all about runs. We let them get back into it, and we knew that they were going to come back and play well. So we got in the huddle [before the third set] and just said, ‘We just need one good pass, get in rhythm and get in the groove.’ We came out and got a kill and just kept going,” Hargrave said. “Last year, we had a really young team; it’s basically the same team as this year, because we only lost two seniors. So we’ve been playing together and working hard together for two years now, and I think it shows in our connection on the court. We know how we work together, and we really want to come together and work to make those good plays.”

Carlson finished with six kills, seven assists, 13 digs and six points, while Hargrave had five kills, two blocks, seven digs, three assists, nine points and four aces for Dixon. Tichler added 12 points, four aces, two kills, three blocks and three digs; Queckboerner had five kills and a block; and Toms chipped in two kills, three blocks, four digs and an ace. Presley Lappin dished five assists and added three digs, and Yui Santos led the way with 10 digs.

“It feels good to have everybody play well, because we all work with each other and have played in different rotations just in case we need to switch it up. We’re all ready to go with whoever is around us,” Tichler said. “We were getting really good serve receiving, and we got it to the right people and they were just putting it down. We were playing well, then the second set didn’t go too hot, but then we fixed it up in the third set.”

Amankwa dished 17 assists to go with nine digs for Sterling, and Sullivan added nine kills and 12 digs. Eddinger spiked five kills, Nia Harris had four kills and four digs, and Alasia Harris Rascon chipped in three kills and two aces. Anderson added 12 points, six aces and 11 digs, and Sechrest spiked a kill to go with her four aces.

“Our key to everything is serve receive. When we get good serve receive, we have a good offense and can win a lot of games. Everything got better for us after we got our serve receive down, but then we just kind of lost it again at the end,” Sullivan said. “We made a lot of errors in all three sets – the first set especially, and we were only down two points in that one – and we made them at tough times. Errors were definitely our main problem as a team tonight, and if we get that in check, I think we’ll be really strong this year.”