Eagles remain unbeaten with sweep of Avon Lake

By Joe Magill Since Kara Coffman became the head volleyball coach at Avon, the Eagles have quickly developed into the dominant program in the Southwestern Conference. But, despite the success, something has been missing—something major. “A big goal of ours is to beat Avon Lake both times,” said Coffman. “Since I’ve been here and since the seniors were freshmen, we have not beaten Avon Lake both times. So, that’s one of our goals.” The Eagles took the first step in achieving that goal Tuesday night, overcoming sloppy play in the first set to dominate the rest of the way, taking a three-game sweep by the scores of 25-23, 25-15, 25-11. Avon, which is ranked third in the state in Division II in the first state coaches poll, is now 10-0 overall and sits atop the SWC standings with a 6-0 mark. Ironically, not only has Avon not swept both matches against the archrival Shoregals in a few years, the Eagles also haven’t won at home against Avon Lake since 2021. In each of the past two seasons, Avon went 13-1 in league play, with the lone loss coming at home to their rivals. “Literally, this is the first time in my years that we’ve beaten them in our own gym, so it feels nice,” said senior Lily Hamilton. “Last year when we played here, it was a big dramatic thing. So, we really wanted to use that for today and we wanted to be able to beat them in our own gym.” As is fitting of a big rivalry match, a large, boisterous crowd watched the proceedings. While it would make sense that the home fans would help the Eagles, it actually worked against them in the first set, when they allowed more than half of Avon Lake’s points to be scored on 12 errors, including five service errors. “This is the first time that we’ve played in front of a big crowd,” said Coffman. “I thought today was a really good experience for us to have that high-pressure environment and work through it and get better as the night goes on.” A few things were working against both teams. They were scheduled to start their match at 6:30, but there was a power outage in Avon that delayed the start of the tripleheader about one hour, and then the junior varsity match went three sets, with Avon pulling out the victory. The result was that the varsity players from both teams were chomping at the bit once they got started at about 8:20, and all that pent-up energy came out in the form of lots of over-hitting. Avon had a total of 12 errors in the opening set, and Avon Lake had six miscues. “We were all a little frustrated,” said Hamilton. “First, the power outage, and then three sets for the JV match. But you’ve got to work with what you’ve got, and we knew this was a big match and we were ready for it. I think we did a good job of leading each other and picking each other up, especially in that first set when it got hard. We’re not used to all the energy and stuff, and we were a little frantic, but we got used to it and took care of business.” Avon opened a 21-19 lead on a kill and a block winner by freshman Clare Freaney, and then Hamilton added consecutive aces to complete a four-point run. However, Avon Lake rallied to take a 23-22 lead before the Eagles secured the set on a kill by Peyton Reinart that barely trickled over the net and was sandwiched between two Avon Lake hitting errors. The Eagles jumped to a lead of 6-2 in the second set and soon had the advantage up to 14-6. The Shoregals cut the margin to 19-14, but Avon finished the set on a 6-1 run. Londyn Stone, who led Avon with 11 kills, had five kills and an ace in the second set. The third set was more of the same, as the Eagles held leads of 12-4 and 17-6 before reaching 25 on consecutive errors by Avon Lake. Hamilton had her usual strong all-around game with 18 assists, six kills and three aces. Bethany Sherwood also had six kills and added two solo block winners, while Reinart had five kills, Freaney had four kills, Kaitlyn Pojman had four kills and 12 assists, and Ally Brediger had 19 digs. “I feel like they all did a really nice job,” said Coffman. “I can’t pinpoint anyone because I feel like they all did a really good job. Everybody really pulls their weight, and we do a really good job of spreading our offense, and everybody’s hustling on defense. So, all around, it was really good.” Avon next plays at Elyria on Thursday.