BIG HIT — Toronto’s Tatum Derrington lines up a kill attempt past Big Red’s Emma Lyons during Thursday’s match inside the Crimson Center. – Andrew Grimm
STEUBENVILLE — For the second night in a row and a third time this week, the Toronto volleyball team found itself deadlocked through two sets against a tough opponent on Thursday.
And, for the third time this week, the Red Knights went on to win the match, winning the third and fourth sets to down host Big Red inside the Crimson Center.
“All week it has been a battle,” Toronto head coach Lori Lynn Jackson said. “We’ve played three good teams, three good programs. All three are scrappy, good competitors. We’re dealing with a couple minor injuries … but the girls battled through the adversity and got it done.”
Toronto, which kept its unblemished record intact by running it to 10-0, also defeated Weir High at home on Wednesday in four sets and won a five-set battle over Wellsville on Monday.
“It feels good to be 10-0, I’ve been coaching for 20 years and this is the first time I’ve had a team be 10-0,” Jackson said. “We knew coming in this could be a good season, but we also knew a lot of teams we play were expecting to have a good season, last year was a building year for a lot of programs, and a lot of them had high expectations so we knew (there were going to be challenges). It feels really good to be 10-0.”
The Knights, who entered the week leading the OVAC Class 2A standings, took the first set 25-20, then Big Red won the second, 25-22. Toronto responded and won a hard-fought third set 25-22 to regain the advantage then pulled ahead early in the fourth and put things away with a 25-14 win.
“Taking that momentum coming off a win … our girls tend to feed off of it,” Jackson said. “They’ve proven that throughout the season. We use it as motivation telling them ‘if you win the fourth one, we don’t have to play a fifth.’
“I don’t ever doubt that my girls give 100 percent, sometimes it doesn’t go our way, but they play hard all the way.”
Hannah Dobbs blasted 31 kills while adding 27 digs and two assists, Andrea Reeves dished 53 assists, tallied 10 digs, six blocks and two kills, Ashton Thomas had 11 blocks, six aces, five kills and three digs, Michelle Anderson racked up 43 digs and three assists, Callie Anderson recorded 11 kills, 10 digs and two blocks and Tatum Derrington registered eight kills and six blocks.
For Big Red (4-7), Sarah Allen had 18 kills and five digs, Analesa Perdue recorded nine kills, three blocks and an ace, Julia Arlesic had two aces and four digs, Kaitlyn Smith recorded 28 assists and four kills and Te’jah Montgomery had six digs and six kills.
“I’m not mad about how they played, they didn’t give up on any ball,” Big Red head coach Logan Collabella said. “We just came up a little bit short unfortunately. Toronto is a great team.”
UP NEXT
Toronto: Begins another big week of four matches with a home contest with Lisbon on Monday.
Big Red: Travels to Wheeling Park on Tuesday for a tri against the Patriots and Lincoln.
