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Warren volleyball sweeps Nelsonville-York

By Jay W. Bennett 4 min read

VINCENT -- Warren senior Elayna Greenwalt had a match-high 16 kills and younger sister Taylor added 14 more here Wednesday night inside Warrior Coliseum en route to a 26-24, 25-14 and 25-17 sweep of Nelsonville-York.

The Warriors of first-year head coach Kaitlyn Cremeans, who improved to 2-0 and welcome in Meigs at 7 p.m. today, also received a quartet of downed spikes apiece from Raelann Morgenstern and Remi Elzey as setter Jaelynn Nichols tallied 31 assists.

“I think the biggest shift coming into the season was learning a new set of values, a new culture,” admitted Cremeans, who got three aces from Elzey and a pair apiece from Nichols and Elayna Greenwalt. “The buy-in is great on that so once we kind of figured out what our expectations were in the gym we’ve been able to model that, not only in practice but on the floor pretty well. We started rough tonight. We weren’t playing as a unit.

“There was no chemistry, no high-sequencing, terrible transitions, just sloppy volleyball. We had to work on that and overcome that, but we finished and got the job done, closed out the set and that was the goal. Then we went in with a new frame of mind in the next two sets. Basically we talked about how this team was going to make us earn every single point and we’ve got to be in the mindset to do that.”

It was the season opener for the Buckeyes of head man Wayne Dicken, who got consecutive kills from Madi Pidcock to start the match.

Nelsonville-York, which returns to action at 3 p.m. Saturday when Trimble invades, led 16-15 after a Cat Dixon ace and 21-20 following an ace from Ava Nungester.

However, the Warriors scored the next three points thanks to back-to-back downed spikes from Elzey and Elayna Greenwalt and then an Elzey ace.

The Buckeyes pushed ahead 24-23 with libero Ella Vohlken serving after Arionna Mason put one to the floor.

Following a timeout, the Warriors finished off the set thanks to an Elayna Greenwalt kill and two more downed spikes from Taylor Greenwalt.

Taylor Greenwalt had a kill to open set two and the Buckeyes called timeout after she served up an ace with the Warriors leading 8-3.

Warren proceeded to jump ahead 22-8 after a Morgenstern ace and had set point at 24-9 following a kill by Julianna Huffman.

N-Y, though, got a sideout and went on a 5-0 spurt that started with a Morgan Lehman kill and ended with an ace by Kinslie Lanning.

Coach Cremeans then called timeout, but instead of having her team come to the bench they were instructed to run from sideline to sideline during the break.

“Hit the line and they know what that means,” Cremeans said of what she told them while imploring them to “refocus and get the job done. First game I just reamed them in a timeout.”

Warren got set point when the Buckeyes were called for being in the net.

The Buckeyes never led in the final set. Nichols opened it with an ace, Taylor Greenwalt followed with a kill and then Elayna Greenwalt had a bump set that led to a Morgenstern kill.

Warrior libero Lizzie Reeder served for match point that was delivered by Elayna Greenwalt’s final kill.

Lehman led the Buckeyes with 14 assists while Mason and Pidcock registered eight kills apiece.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

At Warrior Coliseum

Warren d. Nelsonville-York 26-24, 25-14, 25-17

Nelsonville-York (0-1) stats: Kinslie Lanning 1 ace, 1 AST; Morgan Lehman 3 K, 14 AST; Cat Dixon 2 aces, 2 K, 1 AST; Arionna Mason 1 ace, 8 K; Madi Pidcock 1 ace, 8 K; Ava Nungester 1 ace, 1 AST; Ella Vohlken 1 ace

Warren (2-0) stats: Raelann Morgenstern 1 ace, 4 K; Remi Elzey 3 aces, 4 K; Taylor Greenwalt 2 aces, 14 K; Jaelynn Nichols 2 aces, 1 K, 31 AST; Elayna Greenwalt 16 K, 1 AST; Lizzie Reeder 1 ace

Next matches: Meigs at Warren, 7 p.m. today; Trimble at Nelsonville-York, 3 p.m. Saturday.

Starting at /week.