Adena volleyball surges past Unioto to retain first place in Scioto Valley Conference
CHILLICOTHE − Adena head coach Laura Smith knows the Warriors had to work under pressure in order to defeat Unioto.
It comes with the status they've been given. The Warriors have been sitting at the top of the Scioto Valley Conference since the season began, and they're ranked as the No. 7 team in Ohio among Division III teams.
That distinction comes with a price, however. Adena may be in first place in the conference standings, but it has a massive target on its back. The SVC is the strongest it has been in years, and even teams with losing records pose a threat. Adena has maintained a difficult balancing act of remaining at the top of the standings while fending off those looking to knock it down a peg.
"Every match is a big match," Adena head coach Laura Smith said. "We've got a target on our back. When you're in first place and ranked in the state, you've got a target on your back. And that's okay, because then they can learn to handle pressure."
Adena has managed the expectations well, however, and it continued its tear through the season when it defeated Unioto 3-1 at Unioto High School on Thursday night.
The Shermans didn't let the Warriors walk away with an easy win, however. They wobbled through a back-and-forth opening rally and capitalized off serve receiving issues by the Warriors to earn a 25-19 win in the first set.
"They were serving tough, and we got too far down and couldn't recover," Smith said. "But we started serving a little tougher in the next three to gain that momentum and they just couldn't feed off of it. They weren't going to back down, and you stick with what's working."
But the Warriors flipped the issues that plagued them in the first set back onto the Shermans. They leaned into their aggressive, quick-tempo playstyle and opened each of the next three sets with monstrous scoring runs that put them in permanent leads. Strong serving kept the Shermans on the backfoot, and constant pressure throughout the final three sets built up a gradual lead that the Warriors never lost.
Two 8-2 runs broken up by a timeout rattled the Shermans in the second set. They mounted a small comeback after scoring six unanswered points after a timeout, but the Warriors clamped down on defense. The Shermans never scored more than 14 points in any of the final three sets.
"One thing you've always got to work on in practice is serve receiving and that kind of went south on us tonight," Unioto coach Jim Hutton said. "Adena struggled a little bit in the first set. That's why we had the advantage, and our hitters were attacking the ball because we were insistent. The next three sets we were out of system. We sent free balls to them every time and they were bringing the heat."
Sydney Foglesong led the Warriors up front and harassed the Shermans close to the net. She provided essential blocks and utilized her strength to rack up kills. Foglesong's power up close allowed the Warriors to jump ahead, and she capitalized on the Shermans' mistakes to widen the lead.
Smith trusts Foglesong on the court. The senior has been starting since her freshman year, and she boasts the most kills per set and the highest hitting percentage among the Warriors this season. She's been a focal point for Smith's rotation, and she proved that on Thursday night.
"We slowed down a lot of balls that she attacked and we blocked her a few times, but she was just resilient," Hutton said. "She just kept coming at us. She was hitting those hard angles. The thing of it is, she's a senior, she's got all that experience, she's big and she's strong."
The Warriors needed another big win. They'd been shaken after an upset loss to Southeastern on Tuesday, where they were defeated in four sets by a team with just two conference wins to its name at that point.
But one loss doesn't define a season. The Warriors bounced back and took down one of the strongest teams in the SVC with three dominant sets. The pressure turned on, and the Warriors handled it with ease.
This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Adena retains lead in Scioto Valley Conference with win over Unioto
