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Ottawa pulls away late in close battle against Streator, earns first win · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Ottawa pulls away late in close battle against Streeter. Earns
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  Speaker 1: first win. Written by Bill Frescos. This article is being
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  Speaker 1: read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlit.
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  Speaker 1: Ottawa Volleyball picked up its first win of the season
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  Speaker 1: on Thursday night, rallying past Streeter 25-18, 26-28, 25-23 in
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  Speaker 1: a back-and-forth match. Things started great for the Pirates. They
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  Speaker 1: won the first set easily. and appeared poised to take
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  Speaker 1: the second after building a 23-18 lead. But the Bulldogs
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  Speaker 1: answered with a late rally and eventually won 28-26 to
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  Speaker 1: force a deciding third set. Streeter then jumped to a
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  Speaker 1: 7-2 lead in the third, and all of a sudden,
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  Speaker 1: momentum had switched completely. The Pirates did not let that
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  Speaker 1: deflate them, and they fought back to close out the
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  Speaker 1: match 25-23. For Ottawa's second-year coach Christina Corre... The victory
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  Speaker 1: meant a bit more because of all the work her
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  Speaker 1: team put into their mental game this offseason. We try
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  Speaker 1: to tell these girls that it's not about the setbacks,
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  Speaker 1: it's about how you respond to them, Corey said. And
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  Speaker 1: we train that a lot, so as a coach, it's
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  Speaker 1: just great to see it pay off like this. It
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  Speaker 1: was also meaningful for the second-year coach after the Pirates
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  Speaker 1: lost both meetings with Strader last season by 2-0 scores.
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  Speaker 1: It feels great, Corey said. Coming off of last year,
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  Speaker 1: we knew this was going to be a tough match.
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  Speaker 1: Streeter's a rivalry game, and for it to be this
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  Speaker 1: back-and-forth was crazy. Ottawa responded particularly well after losing the
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  Speaker 1: second set despite holding a 5-point lead late. Senior right
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  Speaker 1: side Bella Knoll, who led the team with 11 kills,
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  Speaker 1: said the team's offseason mental training was validated after a
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  Speaker 1: win like this. I think we definitely got into a
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  Speaker 1: little bit of holes from the score, but it didn't
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  Speaker 1: feel like it was draining, Knoll said. I felt like
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  Speaker 1: we were able to work our way out of it
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  Speaker 1: and just keep pushing through, and we ended up with
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  Speaker 1: the win. After the deflating feeling of losing that second set,
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  Speaker 1: Noel said the team remained calm in the huddle before
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  Speaker 1: the third set and just tried to keep their energy
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  Speaker 1: the same as when they had momentum. I feel like
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  Speaker 1: we brought the energy tonight, and we just kept feeding
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  Speaker 1: off each other whenever we'd have a big moment, Noel said.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't really change much in the third set. As
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  Speaker 1: for the more technical aspects of how the Pirates won,
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  Speaker 1: Corey simply credited Ottawa's attack in serving. When we were
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  Speaker 1: swinging hard, we were hard to stop, Corey said. I
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  Speaker 1: think that we did our plan for that. That's where
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  Speaker 1: I would say our strengths were today, and serving was
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  Speaker 1: especially strong. Ottawa junior Meredith Waldron had a big night
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  Speaker 1: with 14 digs, 4 aces and 2 assists. Junior Savannah
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  Speaker 1: Markey had 7 kills and 4 aces. Streeter coach Julie
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  Speaker 1: Gabbahart said she was proud of her team despite the loss.
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  Speaker 1: The outcome wasn't what we wanted, but I couldn't be
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  Speaker 1: more proud of what they did, Gabbahart said. They showed
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  Speaker 1: great grit, great determination. Gabbahart said the Bulldogs' second set
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  Speaker 1: comeback and third set lead showed the team can compete
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  Speaker 1: with strong opponents, but Streeter became too tentative while trying
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  Speaker 1: to protect its advantage in the third. I think we
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  Speaker 1: just started getting a little bit tight in that third set,
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  Speaker 1: Gabhart said. We had a lead going, a pretty comfortable
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  Speaker 1: lead early on, and I think we just got a
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  Speaker 1: little bit too tight, trying to be a little too careful,
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  Speaker 1: a little more tentative. The Bulldogs did settle back in,
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  Speaker 1: but Ottawa finished the comeback. Gabhart said, Strador can take
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  Speaker 1: confidence from how it competed throughout the match. I think
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  Speaker 1: what they can take is they can play with any team,
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  Speaker 1: Gabhart said. They can play with the best teams they're
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  Speaker 1: going to face. They're going to hang with them all
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  Speaker 1: the time. Streeter was led by Kinsley Sweden with 7 kills,
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  Speaker 1: 4 aces, and 12 assists. Avery Gribben had 7 kills,
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  Speaker 1: 1 block, 1 ace, and 13 digs. Sophie Snow added
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  Speaker 1: 6 kills and a block, while Ashley Taylor had 5
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  Speaker 1: kills and 8 assists.