Girls volleyball: Woodland middles, more overpower Earlville in straight sets

RURAL STREATOR – The Woodland Warriors trailed briefly a few times Wednesday, and the Earlville Red Raiders were right there competing rally after rally, but slowly and surely the hosts at the Warrior Dome pulled away from their visitors for a 25-20, 25-16 nonconference victory.

Woodand’s dual dynamic middles – senior Malayna Pitte (six kills, one stuff block) and sophomore Grace Longmire (14 kills, two stuff blocks) – were their usual dominant selves and gave the Red Raiders fits. On a lot of momentum-turning plays, however, the Warriors and setter Ella Derossett (19 assists) sprinkled in some other attacks, allowing Woodland to pull away late in the opening set and from a 9-9 tie in the closing one.

“Hitting, we’re trying new things,” Woodland coach Michelle Pitte said. “We’ve got to change it up, because everybody’s onto our middle game. So we’re trying to change that up.

“And as far as what we’re doing as a team, I think we’re finally figuring out where everybody needs to go and filling those holes.”

Libero Jaylei Leininger (nine digs, two aces), Sadie Darm (five digs) and Gabby Jacobs (five digs, one ace) also paced the attack for Woodland, now 10-6 on the season.

“Our passing was on today,” Malayna Pitte said. “We’re definitely happy [with how things are going this season], for sure. A lot of girls have stepped up this year, and we’re really proud of them.”

Earlville (6-12) received nine digs courtesy of libero Liz Vazquez, five digs and three aces from Jacey Helgesen, and four aces off the hand of Audrey Scherer. Up front, the Red Raiders saw eight assists pushed by Payton Actis and an especially impressive left-side showing from Bailey Miller, who put down eight kills in addition to her five digs on the evening.

“[Miller] played a very good match,” said Earlville coach Brandon Skolek, filling in for head coach Tonya Scherer. “She hit the ball very hard, and that was one of our messages going in: Let’s get some good passes to our setters, because we can do some attacking on them as well. ...

“But we weren’t stringing the points together, unfortunately. We kept cutting [the deficit] to one or two or three, but their middles had some success against us today. Part of that is we’re young and gaining that experience. Two middles like that, we haven’t seen that.”

The last tie in the opening set came at 7-7 before Woodland’s Jacobs served up five consecutive points, including an ace and a Malayna Pitte kill, followed by Layna Wilcoxen’s four-point service run. The Red Raiders drew as close as three after that, but no closer.

The second set was tied 9-9 when a Leininger ace immediately followed by a Malayna Pitte stuff block put the Warriors ahead for good. Multi-point service runs from Jacobs and Derossett followed, and ultimately Longmire boomed down the night’s final kill off a Derossett set.

“They had amazing games,” Coach Pitte said of her two middles, Longmire and her daughter Malayna. “I’m very, very proud of both of our middles ... and we played well as a team tonight.”