Eagles fall to Magnificat, look forward to possible rematch

It was a volleyball match that Avon wanted to win but didn’t mind losing. Wednesday evening two of the best Division II teams in the state faced off in the regular-season finale at Magnificat—the No. 3-ranked Avon Eagles versus the No. 2 Blue Streaks. The matchup didn’t disappoint the large and vocal crowd, as the hosts took a hard-fought victory by the scores of 25-23, 23-25, 27-25, 25-22. “It was very fun volleyball to watch,” said Avon coach Kara Coffman. It also halted a 21-match win streak for the Eagles, who ended the regular season with a 21-1 mark, including their third consecutive Southwestern Conference championship. But Coffman was not distressed over the loss. “You don’t learn stuff by winning every single game,” she said. “So, yeah, it’s not a bad thing. We learned more today from the loss than we would have from a win. We can see what our matchups are. This gives us stuff to work on.” The way the postseason brackets are set up, these two teams could meet again in the state semifinals in early November should everything go according to the seeding. So, that’s where the learning comes into it for Avon. “We learned a lot tonight,” said Coffman. “We have stuff we need to work on. We’re going to see this team again in a couple weeks, and we’re going to be better than today. This isn’t the game that counts. The game that counts is in a couple weeks. So, we’re just excited and ready to work. We know we can beat them.” The area where the Eagles need the most improvement is in their reception of serves. Both coaches stated that was the difference in the match. “They’re a really good team,” said Coffman. “We’re in their gym. They had a lot of energy. I feel like our biggest struggle tonight was our serve receive, and that hasn’t been a struggle all season. It just showed us that we need to work a little bit more on that, maybe have some more options in serve receive and try to get out of those rotations a little bit quicker.” Magnificat coach Matt Onweller said, “I thought we really took advantage of the serve and pass today. I thought we did a really good job of serving. We did a really strong job of serve receive and holding together there. That was our focus coming into the game. We talked about whoever wins serve and pass is probably going to win the match.” The handling of serves was really the only thing that separated the two teams. Both pounded the ball aggressively, with Magnificat getting 23 kills from Sydney Borowy, 15 from Kaelin White and 12 from freshman Mary Clayton. Avon countered with Londyn Stone with 16 kills, freshman Clare Freaney with nine, and Lily Hamilton and Bethany Sherwood with eight each. Each of the four sets was a back-and-forth affair, with the lead never getting larger than five points. White had seven kills in the first set to lead the Blue Streaks, but Avon countered in the second set with a 6-0 run that turned a 7-2 deficit into an 8-7 lead. Things were tight for the remainder of the set. Consecutive aces by Ally Brediger gave Avon a little breathing room, and then Stone ended the set with a kill from the back row. The third set was the tightest of the match, as both teams opened slight leads only to see the advantage disappear. With the score tied at 19, the teams traded points all the way until it was 25-25. Magnificat then put it away with consecutive kills by White and Clayton. Avon seemed to be in control of the fourth set, opening leads of 11-6 and 14-9. It appeared a fifth set was inevitable, but the Blue Streaks ran off seven consecutive points to turn a 17-13 deficit into a 20-17 lead. Clayton had a starring role in the run, collecting four kills in five points as the Eagles had no answer for the middle hitter. “Mary Clayton has had a great couple of weeks,” said Onweller. “We didn’t start her. We decided to go with (Lizzie Godlewski) today to start. There were just a couple things in the first set we saw that we wanted to see differently. (Mary) had a great match. This is the best she’s played for us. We’re excited about her growth.” The Eagles continued to battle, but they could never get the deficit under three until a third consecutive kill by Freaney made it 24-22 in favor of the Blue Streaks. The match then ended on a kill by Borowy. “That’s a really good team,” Onweller said of Avon. “We were wondering how they were, because we haven’t seen them. But they were 21-0 and I definitely feel that’s the team that could come out of that region. They’re pretty similar to (top-ranked) Anthony Wayne. I think the top three or four teams, it’s going to depend on who’s on and who’s playing well that day. Who’s going to take care of what they need to?” Coffman said the Eagles are eager to seek the answers to those questions. “We hadn’t lost a game all season,” she said. “If we would have won tonight, we would have been a little comfortable the next time we played them, and we wouldn’t have found other things that we needed to improve on. This is going to light a fire Avon opens postseason play when it hosts Warren Harding on Monday.