When Aberdeen Christian found its route blocked early on Friday night, the Knights came up with alternate paths to claim another victory.
Christian improved to 19-3 on the season with a 25-17, 25-16, 25-14 non-conference volleyball win over Florence-Henry at Aberdeen Christian School Gym.
The Falcons, the top-seeded team in Region 1A, stymied Christian hitters early by blocking their angles on the way to a 6-3 advantage. However, the Knights soon discovered open spots in the Florence-Henry defense and began to pull away in the opening set at one stage scoring 10 straight points.
“Our offense tonight was pretty well balanced between most of our hitters,” said Christian coach Maggie Jett. “I thought Kaylee (Block) did a nice job distributing the ball amongst all of them across the net. Our hitters did a nice job tonight getting up over top and finding holes in their defense.”
That is something the squad works on and it came in handy against the Falcons.
“We practice everything. If there’s coverage on one thing, we’ll go (somewhere else),” said Christian junior Mallory Miller. “All of us can hit really well, so we just move it around and spread the offense.”
The Knights dominated the second set, bolting out to a 12-3 lead. The hosts then overcame a 5-1 deficit to start the third thanks to an 11-3 surge and never trailed after that in securing the victory.
Hannah Miller and Mary Fites each had 11 kills for the Knights. Block finished with four aces, 35 set assists and three blocks.
“Were putting the pieces together. We’re fine-tuning things,” Jett said. “Our passing was on point tonight. Kaylee is finding her groove at the net and that’s key. She’s just figuring out our offense and what the girls need.”
Caylin Kelly had eight kills to lead Florence-Henry, which slipped to 22-6 on the season.
The sweep over a quality program was the best the Knights have played in recent weeks, according to Jett.
“It’s been a bit of a grind the last couple of weeks,” Jett said. “Some of these more positive wins have been really nice to give us a little bit of a push.”
Christian hosts Herreid-Selby Area in its regular-season finale on Tuesday night. The two squads met earlier this season.
“They’re scrappy. They have a lot of energy,” Jett said. “We played them in the Ipswich Tournament. We did OK against them, but they pushed us a little bit so we’re going to need to be ready and I think we will be.”
With the post season slightly more than a week away, the Knights hope to be peaking at the right time.
“We want to be playing our best right about now,” Mallory Miller said. “It’s looking good.”
Serving: Florence-Henry 44-49 (Macey Lane 9-10 1 ace, Reese Schmidt 9-10); Aberdeen Christian 59-65 6 aces (Kaylee Block 20-21 4 aces, Grace Kaiser 11-12 2 aces).
Hitting: Florence-Henry 94-107 (Caylin Kelly 26-26 8 kills, Lane 19-22 3 kills); Aberdeen Christian 108-122 (Hanna Miller 18-22 11 kills, Mary Fites 32-35 11 kills).
Setting: Florence-Henry (Trinity Watson 49-51 9 assists, Schmidt 27-29 7 assists); Aberdeen Christian (Block 95-97 35 assists).
Digs: Florence-Henry 89-109 (Kelly 20, Taylor Watson 16); Aberdeen Christian 55-58 (Joy Rohrbach 18, Ruth Hulscher 12).
Blocks: Florence-Henry 18 (Kelly 2 solos 2 and 5 assists, Carlie Moe 3 solos 1 assist); Aberdeen Christian (Block 1 solo 2 assists, Mallory Miller 1 solo 2 assists).
