Volleyball team gets back on track with sweep of Avon Lake

After spending a few weeks missing one of the most important tools from her toolbox, Avon volleyball coach Cara Stergiou was happy to see things return to normal.

Playing at rival Avon Lake Tuesday in a Southwestern Conference match, the Eagles celebrated the return of Clare Freaney to the lineup by sweeping past the Shoregals by the scores of 25-21, 25-14 and 25-20 to break a two-game losing streak that saw them drop out of first place in the SWC for the first time in almost exactly three years.

A 6-foot-2 sophomore, Freaney opened the season as a dominant hitter before spraining the deltoid ligament in her ankle. The Eagles struggled without her, losing consecutive SWC matches to Midview and Amherst, something that had never before happened in Stergiou’s tenure as coach.

“We definitely needed to break the losing streak. That’s for sure,” she said. “This is always a fun gym to play in. It’s super-competitive. Always a big crowd. Big rivalry game, too. And this was our first road win, so it was awesome to finally accomplish that. We’re just really looking forward to the second half of conference play to kind of show those teams what Avon actually looks like this year with everybody back.”

Freaney led the way with 16 kills, with many coming after sets from Lauren Bauer, who made her varsity debut as backup setter after recovering from a fractured tailbone that occurred just before the team had its tryouts. Bauer ended the night with 15 assists while starting setter Madison Demmerle had 23.

But the story of the match was Freaney, who leads the team not only as its top hitter, but in other ways as well.

“She gives us a big boost,” Stergiou said. “You can just tell. First of all, she brings a lot of really good positive energy. I always tell her she controls the energy of our team. Secondly, her teammates just have so much confidence in her. She’s not one to overthink things. It’s really easy to rely on her, and she takes on that burden with grace.”

Libero Ally Brediger, who along with Freaney was a starter on last year’s state championship team, said the return of Freaney made a huge difference for the Eagles.

“Obviously, Clare’s a really big part of our team,” she said. “She’s our strongest hitter and she’s very big with our energy. I have to say for sure that having everybody back was a big part of it. But we’ve all been working really hard and we all know that we can do better than those two losses. I feel like we came back today with a different mindset and kind of just had to shake off the losses because we know we’re better than that. We felt like we had to mentally put that aside, and I feel like we did a really good job of that.”

The final two sets against Avon Lake were similar in that the hosts scored first in each but then Avon eventually took control. In the second set, the score was relatively close with Avon holding a 7-5 lead before the Eagles went on a 10-1 run to break things open. Freaney had four kills during the set and Ellie Husk had three of her six kills and one of her two aces.

The final set was a little more competitive, as Avon Lake was up, 9-6, before Avon rattled off five points in a row, including an ace by Demmerle. A little later, with freshman Lucy Lee contributing two kills and Freaney adding two more, the Eagles jumped to a 17-12 and maintained a four- or five-point lead for the rest of the match.

Avon hosts winless Elyria on Thursday in a match that will complete the first half of the conference season. The Eagles, 6-3 overall and 4-2 in league play, still have eight SWC matches on the schedule and hope to right the ship, as they currently sit in a second-place tie with Amherst, one game behind Olmsted Falls.

“I think we’re in a really good place to start building off of,” Stergiou said. “I would love to find a lineup, stick to it and adjust from there because with so many people getting injured, we’ve been changing lineups, trying to figure things out. But I think we’re on a good path to move forward, especially in the second half of the conference season, which is really important to get ready for tournament time. I’m really excited for that.”