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Lady Comets muzzle Bulldogs, 3-0
Lady Comets muzzle Bulldogs, 3-0
By TONY LANGE
Bump, set, fake spike, fake spike … kill!
The Solon volleyball team distributed 37 kills among five hitters during the Lady Comets' 3-0 season opening triumph against Stow last Thursday. The game scores were 25-21, 25-16 and 25-18.
Solon has so many capable spikers that the Lady Bulldogs didn't know where to focus their blockers, Comets head coach Melissa FitzGerald said.
"That's huge. That's hard to stop," she said. "I feel like the great thing is that, for the first time, we have multiple people who can step up and contribute to our success.
"I was very happy with our first win. Last year, Stow beat us in three straight sets, and we turned it around and beat them in three straight sets. So I think that's a huge step in the right direction."
While the Lady Comets started their season on fire, they had a week off and will travel to Strongsville a 7:30 p.m. Sept. 6 for the second matchup of their 2012 campaign.
Leading the Solon offense against Stow, Fordham University recruit Kristi Tekevec had 13 kills, sophomore Breana Jeter had nine kills, Kelsey Ansec had six kills, sophomore Mia Bonsignore had five kills, and junior Julie Ludwig had four kills.
Each one of those hitters is either 5-foot-11 or 6-foot.
Senior setter Monica Chehade tallied about 30 assists against Stow, and her sets must vary in quickness and height to complement each hitter's style and approach.
"That's a good problem to have. It's a great situation to be in when you have so many different options," FitzGerald said. "Monica will adapt and only get better. It takes repetition and timing and who to set where and in what situations. With this being her second year setting these girls on varsity, it's definitely starting to click."
While Solon has a loaded offense, its defense may be just as deep.
Leading the digs category for the Lady Comets, senior libero Kaylee Kruse had 15, Tekavec had 13, senior defensive specialist Jessie Lim had 12, and Chehade had 11.
Tekavec and Chehade played dual roles on the court in that respect, but the Lady Comets essentially have six players competing for three back-row positions, FitzGerald said.
"We can't just be good defensively. We have to be great," she said before the season started.
"It was great to see them make their defensive presence known against Stow," FitzGerald said. "We still have a ton of work to do, but they work incredibly hard on defense. We just have to get smarter. I'm not worried about it being an effort thing on defense, but it's more of a mentality and a knowledge and recognition that we need to improve."
The only thing disappointing about the first game was that the Lady Comets kept letting Stow chip away at their leads, FitzGerald said.
"We made some unforced errors and some service errors. We made some hitting errors. And that's going to happen," she said. "I told the kids at the beginning of the game, I said we need to be aggressive, and, if we make some errors, that's OK. It's the first game. We can't be tentative. That's not how we're going to be a good team."
Many high school volleyball teams compete with an eight- or nine-player rotation, but Solon utilized 11 Lady Comets against Stow.
"It's really competitive, so they push each other every day in practice, and they're motivated to get that playing time and make that impact on the team," FitzGerald said. "We have a lot of different weapons and a lot of different people who can step up at different times in different positions. If we can get every kid to step up at the right time at the end of the season, it could be pretty exciting."
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