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Serena stays steady, sweeps Newark in Little Ten girls volleyball clash · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Serena stays steady, sweeps Newark in Littleton girls' volleyball clash.
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  Speaker 1: Written by Brian Hoxie. This article is being read by
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  Speaker 1: an automated voice brought to you by Everlit. The Serena
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  Speaker 1: volleyball team used a combination of solid defense, timely hitting,
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  Speaker 1: and a move-on-to-the-next-point mentality to earn a 25-22, 25-20 Littleton
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  Speaker 1: conference victory over visiting Newark on Thursday night on Al
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  Speaker 1: Stegman Court. Newark has a great program and so many
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  Speaker 1: good players, but I feel our team and players are
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  Speaker 1: pretty good too. Serena Sr., Libero, Brindley Glade said, I
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  Speaker 1: really think a big key for us tonight, and it's
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  Speaker 1: something Serena coach Chris Bjork talks about all the time,
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  Speaker 1: is just taking one point at a time. Not getting
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  Speaker 1: too high or too low, but keeping our emotions on
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  Speaker 1: an even keel. I thought we did that very well.
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  Speaker 1: The Huskers improved to 7-2-2 overall and 2-0 in league play.
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  Speaker 1: The Norsemen dropped to 4-1 and 1-1. I thought we
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  Speaker 1: played outstanding on defense, Bjork said. This is a scrappy team,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm more of a defensive-minded coach, so from day one,
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  Speaker 1: we've worked very hard to be solid team defensively. The
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  Speaker 1: girls do a great job of anticipating what the other
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  Speaker 1: team is going to do. Our hitters did an excellent
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  Speaker 1: job of hitting to the open spots. We were mixing
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  Speaker 1: things up offensively, and that's what you have to do
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  Speaker 1: against a very talented team like Newark has. I also
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  Speaker 1: think we did a great job of keeping our cool.
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  Speaker 1: We didn't make very many mistakes tonight, and that's a
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  Speaker 1: credit to the girls, but the ones we made, they
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  Speaker 1: just let them go and moved on. Serena held leads
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  Speaker 1: of 14-9, 17-12, and 23-16 in the opening set, with
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  Speaker 1: a combination of four kills from senior Anna Herp, who
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  Speaker 1: was honored prior to the match for reaching 600 kills
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  Speaker 1: and 600 digs in her prep career, and three aces
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  Speaker 1: by Glade helping forge the advantage. Newark closed two within
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  Speaker 1: 24-22 after two kills each from Zoe Carlson and Riley Carlson,
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  Speaker 1: but Serena's Madeline Sturkey's kill on set point closed thing out.
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  Speaker 1: Anna's our powerhouse, and she came into the match tonight
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  Speaker 1: super focused, Glade said. Newark being a rival and beating
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  Speaker 1: us three times last season, she was not going to
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  Speaker 1: let us lose. She's put in a lot of work
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  Speaker 1: in the offseason, and it's shown these first few matches
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  Speaker 1: of the season. In the second set, Serena used a
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  Speaker 1: three-point service run by Herp, the last in ace, to
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  Speaker 1: lead 2014. A block by Tessa Cott and a kill
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  Speaker 1: by Ella Bromland helped Newark close to within 2018. But
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  Speaker 1: from there, a trio of kills by Sturchey helped Serena
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  Speaker 1: close out the triumph. Serena was led by Herp, 12 kills,
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  Speaker 1: 9 digs, 5 aces, Sturchey, 6 kills, 6 digs, Glade,
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  Speaker 1: 13 digs, 4 aces, Alexa McNally, 8 digs, Parker Twait,
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  Speaker 1: 2 blocks, Emily Hoffman, 3 blocks, and Maddie Young. 16 assists,
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  Speaker 1: two blocks. Newark received fine performances from Riley Carlson, nine kills,
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  Speaker 1: 16 digs. Zoe Carlson, eight kills, caught, four kills. Ella Bromland,
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  Speaker 1: 14 assists. Taylor Jeffers, eight assists. And Kayla Pottinger, 16 digs.
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  Speaker 1: The game of volleyball is all about first contact, and
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  Speaker 1: we just missed too many serve seven tonight. It's very
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  Speaker 1: tough to put together any kind of run when you
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  Speaker 1: miss serves like we were. Newark coach PJ McKinney said,
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  Speaker 1: We also struggle with our serve-receive as well, and when
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  Speaker 1: those two things happen at the same time, it's going
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  Speaker 1: to make things tough. It felt like we were chasing
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  Speaker 1: Serena for most of the night. I felt like we
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  Speaker 1: were staying within striking distance, but just couldn't play consistent
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  Speaker 1: enough to really get and extend a lead. This first
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  Speaker 1: part of the season, we are still trying to figure
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  Speaker 1: out some things, lineups and rotations, and by the middle
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  Speaker 1: of the season, we'll take what's worked Fine-tune it, and
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  Speaker 1: hopefully by the end be rolling. Newark is back in
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  Speaker 1: action Saturday at the Manteno Early Bird Tournament, while Serena
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  Speaker 1: is off until Tuesday when it hosts Woodland.