La Salle-Peru wins back-and-forth match with rival Ottawa

OTTAWA – It doesn’t matter the sport or the location when the La Salle-Peru Cavaliers and the Ottawa Pirates get together. It’s going to be a battle.

Thursday at Ottawa’s Kingman Gym was no different, and in the end it was the Cavs who took the hard-fought 25-20, 25-19 Interstate 8 Conference victory.

The opening set was back and forth from start to finish, almost going point for point to the end.

Ayla Dorsey gave the Pirates the early edge with a cross court kill, but Aubrey Duttlinger came back with a quick kill to give the Cavs the lead at 4-3.

After a back-and-forth point ended with Kelsey Frederick and Jordan Whaley combing for the block, L-P led 8-5.

But the Pirates responded as Skylar Dorsey got a stuff at the net, and Ayla Dorsey’s shot landed on the back line before Mary Stisser sent a shot off the Cavs defenders to give Ottawa the 9-8 edge.

“I thought we came out with good energy tonight with this being a big rivalry,” Ottawa coach Jenn Crum said. “We battled all the way. L-P is such a strong team, but we came out strong to start the match.”

After the teams traded the next couple of points, Duttlinger blasted away to give the lead back to the Cavs at 12-11.

But just like the entire set, it was Ottawa’s turn as Ayla Dorsey crushed a shot across the court, and then Belle Markey and Addison Duggan combined for a block to regain the lead .

With the score tied at 17, the Cavs went on a small run to take the momentum for good in the opening set.

Anna Riva got a quick kill and backed it up with a shot down the line. Frederick then served up two aces that ended a 5-0 run to give L-P a 22-17 lead.

Ottawa ended the run with a cross court shot from Stisser, but a service error gave the momentum right back to the Cavs.

A miscommunication from L-P and an Ayla Dorsey kill kept Ottawa close, but back-to-back Pirate errors led to a 25-20 first-set victory for L-P.

“We typically start slow, but tonight we were able to get the first-set victory,” L-P coach Mark Haberkorn said. “It’s a rivalry, and Ottawa was playing well, but then once we settled down we were able to do some things and move the ball around to get the job done.”

Early In the second set, the teams again went back and forth with the set tied at 4. At that point, the Pirates started to turn up the pressure.

Ella Schmitz served an ace, then Duggan and Ella Damron teamed up for a block as Ottawa went on a 5-0 run.

Duttlinger ended the run with a shot that landed on the back line, and Ruby Davis served an ace after an Ottawa miscommunication.

Back-to-back shots from L-P landed out of bounds, then Duggan sent a shot into the corner before Skylar Dorsey hit a shot off a block that landed out for a 12-8 Ottawa advantage. Skylar Dorsey got the block and Ayla Dorsey followed with a kill and a block of her own as the Pirates lead grew to 15-9.

But from that point on it was all Cavs (23-2, 6-1 I8). A net violation by Ottawa and a block by L-P’s Drew Depenbrock was followed by a monster kill from Frederick.

After a Pirates timeout, Depenbrock got a kill. Two points later, Callie Mertes served an ace to tie the score at 16. Two points later, Duttlinger got a big hit for an 18-16 Cavs lead. The next point saw Mertes serve up another ace.

“We just became more aggressive in the second set,” Duttlinger said. “Once we did that we got rolling along with serves.”

Another ace from Mertes and a kill from Duttlinger led Ottawa (22-11, 4-3) to take another timeout as the 14-1 run gave the Cavs a 23-16 edge.

“Once we got rolling with the serve receive we had Ottawa on their heels a bit,” Mertes said. “Every game we have with them is intense. It was amazing once we got going.”