Times Observer photo by Cody Elms
Sheffield’s Emily Foster sets during the Wolverines 3-0 win over visiting Youngsville on Monday evening inside Ralph J. Santo Gymnasium in Sheffield.
SHEFFIELD — “Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back … play for her.”
Sheffield head coach Melissa Lemay sent out the Mia Hamm quote Monday morning to her girls, just hours before a cross-county matchup that was sure to have high energy coming in from both sides as the Sheffield Wolverines and the visiting Youngsville Eagles faced off inside Ralph J. Santo Gymnasium for the first time since a heated contest during Sheffield’s volleyball tournament in September.
The Wolverines bested the Eagles 25-12 that day and picked up right where they left off 22 days ago, sweeping Youngsville 25-12, 25-10, 25-8 on Monday.
Lemay stressed keeping the now 14-2 Wolverines focused coming into the evening with playoffs on the horizon.
“We’ve been having a lot of discussion lately about just playing for the love of the game,” said Lemay. “I said to them, as we start the last week of the regular season, don’t forget to play for the love of the game. When we came out today, before we started, I said, you can’t take anybody for granted. As we go forward towards the playoffs, we have to play every match like it is of the utmost importance, and they just went out and they executed.
Times Observer photo by Cody Elms
Sheffield’s Kassidy Orinko, back, and Madi Connolly, front, tag-team in blocking a Youngsville return Monday evening inside Ralph J. Santo Gymnasium.
Tied 6-6 in the first set, the Eagles were giving Sheffield a challenge early until the Wolverines were able to put together two seven-point runs to capture the first win of the night. Sheffield didn’t let up in the second or third, improving on defense in both sets while rolling on offense.
“They’re beatable,” said Youngsville head coach Hannah Bulard. “We match up evenly between Riley (Robinault) and Kassidy Orinko. They have the same qualities, but Sheffield’s been on a run. They’re good. They’re working together, and we can’t seem to want to work together to win a game.”
Orinko led the Wolverines with 12 kills, five aces and five blocks. Emily Foster added seven kills and four blocks.
Emily Davidson had eight digs, while Kadence Steffan had six and 18 assists.
Robinault had two aces and two blocks for the Eagles. Lynzee Higley led with six digs.
Times Observer photo by Cody Elms
Youngsville’s Riley Robinault sets up a teammate while on the road against the Wolverines on Monday in Sheffield.
Sheffield’s jayvees were also victorious 25-19, 27-25. Lily Benton had 11 assists and Camryn Sunburg and Maddy Snell each had three kills.
Sheffield will host Dubois Central Catholic tonight, while Youngsville hosts Tidioute.
