Mendon dominates Leland to earn Division 4 state championship
Mendon celebrates championship point In a match that featured two of our top-ranked teams in Division 4 throughout the year, it was the Mendon Hornets that proved they were the class of the division with a 25-16, 25-21, 25-14 sweep…
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Continue ReadingIn a match that featured two of our top-ranked teams in Division 4 throughout the year, it was the Mendon Hornets that proved they were the class of the division with a 25-16, 25-21, 25-14 sweep of Leland on Saturday morning for their first state championship since 2001.
The Hornets were on point in every aspect of the game, from serving, passing, hitting and blocking. Leland couldn’t find an answer in any set.
“This team is always clicking really well and they have always had a chemistry,” Mendon coach Heather Bowers said. “They just went out there and just played their game.”
The first set was even in the early stages before Mendon started to chip away at Leland. The Hornets went on a 5-0 run to take a 9-7 lead and they wouldn’t trail in the set again. Mendon did a little bit of everything in the set, earning points on the serve, block and attack. Hayley Kramer had an ace for the 24th point and Anna Smith finished things off with an easy kill to give the Hornets the 25-16 victory.
The second set was more of the same. Leland had a lead at 11-8, but Mendon slowly wore down the Comets and took control. After a 19-19 tie, Mendon would score six of the final eight points to take the set. Smith had another powerful kill to put the Hornets up 24-21 and Caroline Keating finished it with a block on the next point.
Mendon established the lead early in the third, going on a 5-0 run to take a 10-5 advantage thanks to a pair of aces from libero Amaijha Bailey. For the match, Mendon ended up with 11 aces and just four service errors. The championship point would come on an ace from Smith.
“We work in practice on serves quite a bit,” Bowers said. “One of our strategies is to get the team out-of-system, no matter who it is, and that has worked for us the entire tournament.”
Anna SmithSmith finished the match with 18 kills while hitting .500. Leland coach Laurie Glass knew the Comets would have their hands full with her, but were hoping to slow down their other attacks. That didn’t happen, as Kramer finished with 11 kills while hitting .500 as well.
“We couldn’t contain her,” Glass said of Smith. “There was no containing her. I didn’t think we were going to contain her, but I hoped we stop their other people that were scoring on us.”
Aubrey Crotser had 22 assists for Mendon in the win while Bailey finished with 12 digs. Kramer led the team in digs with five and the Hornets also finished with five team blocks.
Allie Martin led Leland with 13 kills, but the team hit just .157 for the match. Ella Siddall had 30 assists and nine digs while Hannah Elwell added seven kills and Tatum Kareck had six.