Eagles drop four-setter to Wadsworth in regional semifinals

Avon’s girls volleyball team won the first set Wednesday in a Division II regional semifinal matchup against Wadsworth, but the Eagles were unable to maintain the momentum, eventually losing in four sets to bring the season to an end.

Last year, on the way to winning the state title, Avon defeated the Grizzlies in five sets in the regional final. This year, the Eagles started the match like a house afire, jumping to leads of 10-3 and 22-11. Wadsworth made a late run to cut it to 24-19, but the set ended with Avon on top, 25-19.

“We came out very strong in the first set,” said coach Kara Stergiou. “Momentum was on our side, basically the whole time from the first point. We really took over and executed. But we struggled to finish there a little bit. We had a bigger lead than we ended up finishing with. We kind of relied on them making a lot of errors in that first set, which helped us.”

However, Wadsworth played a much cleaner match the rest of the way, winning the last three sets by the scores of 25-22, 25-22 and 25-21.

“Momentum switched over to their side, and they were definitely making less errors,” Stergiou said. “We just struggled to finish set two and three. Overall, the girls played really well. It just didn’t go our way. All the sets were super tight. We just weren’t getting any of the key points. There were lots of long rallies, and that was awesome to see them really fight. But I feel like we kind of got a little gassed out after those long rallies.”

Avon appeared to be poised to win the third set with a late lead, but the Eagles were unable to finish it off.

“I think it was 21-18, and then we ended up losing, which was not good,” Stergiou said. “But I was proud of the girls for not giving up in the fourth set. They fought really hard all four sets. If you’re going to lose, the way to lose is to leave it all out there. Even the final points of the fourth set, the girls picked it up a little bit more, and I saw them fighting for every single point. They never gave up.”

Thus ended a season that started with high hopes but was sometimes derailed by circumstances.

“The season has been very unpredictable,” Stergiou said. “I’ve called it the season where we can’t catch a break. There was always something. Lots of injuries. Even before the Wadsworth game, we had two girls home sick who missed practice on Tuesday and a starter who missed Monday because of an injury.

“We really could not catch a break all season. At one point we had five girls injured at one of the games, and I remember one practice where we had seven girls sitting out for injuries. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! I’ve never had this many injuries.’ But those are things you can’t control.”

On the positive side, the injuries allowed Stergiou to give valuable playing time to several young players, which should pay dividends in the future. After graduating six seniors from last year’s championship squad, the Eagles won 15 of 25 matches, won their fourth consecutive district title, and still managed to place second in the Southwestern Conference.

“It’s kind of like what our athletic director (Erich Frombach) said,” Stergiou said. “He said, ‘This is our off-season, and we still got second in the conference.’ It definitely was a rebuilding year for us after last year. So, the future is definitely looking bright. We’re a really young team. By the end of the season, there were three freshmen who were starting. There’s lots of young talent for the future.”

The three starting freshmen were Aria Barbera, Lucy Lee and Maryn Maxey. Avon also got huge contributions from sophomores Clare Freaney and Ellis Husk as well as juniors Ally Brediger, Lauren Bauer, Julia Majerus and Addy Smith.

“We were inconsistent this year,” Stergiou said. “With youth comes inconsistencies. What I have seen is as they mature and get older, those inconsistencies become consistent. The lineup that we had at the end of the season was definitely not what I thought it was going to be at the beginning of the season. Our lineup changed so much throughout the season, but the girls did a great job adapting and being willing to play anywhere and fill in any missing spots.”

The injuries and the team’s youth made for a challenging season for Stergiou, but it was a season she thoroughly enjoyed.

“It was a fun season,” she said. “I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the challenge of a rebuilding year. I learned how to be ready for anything, but I thought it was fun.”