Volleyball: Sterling sweeps Galesburg as Carley Sullivan’s 6 kills lead team

STERLING — Serving the ball has become a strength for the Sterling volleyball team. Tallying double-digit aces in a third straight win, the Golden Warriors swept Galesburg 25-13, 25-16 in Western Big 6 Conference play at home on Tuesday.

Sterling (9-4, 3-3 Big 6) had 11 aces from six different players in the victory, evening its conference record after starting 0-3 against the top teams in the Big 6. Galesburg (3-2, 1-5) lost its fifth straight match.

“When you play strong teams in the Big 6 every night, when you have them in your gym, you have to be able to: 1) serve them aggressively to slow down their hitters; and then 2) you have to be able to pass well,” Sterling coach Dale Dykeman said. “I thought our back row with Macy Anderson leading that passed and serve-received really well tonight.”

Anderson had an ace and a team-high nine digs, Nia Harris (three kills) had three aces, Delali Amankwa (two aces) had two kills and 12 assists, Payton Ottens had two aces, and Marley Sechrest (three kills, one block) also had two aces in the win.

Sterling senior Carley Sullivan had an ace and led the team with six kills. She said the team is communicating and passing well the more it has improved.

“Our serving at the beginning of the year was really rough,” she said. “We cleaned that up, and serving leads to everything in the game, so everything has been better.”

Dykeman said serving and passing well are common keys to success.

“If you can do both those really well, you give yourself a chance to compete with just about anybody,” he said. “That’s what we’ve really focused on the last week and a half in practice, so it’s good to see the girls getting it done on the floor as well.”

The team also worked on tooling the block, something it struggled with in its Big 6 losses.

“Some of those teams that beat us the first time that blocked us well, we have to be able to get around and tool that block for points,” he said. “We had four or five kills off of tooling the block, which is awesome to see that translate from practice to the court.”

Sterling quickly took command in the opening set, leading 21-9 at one point before a Sullivan kill eventually finished the first set. Galesburg kept things within striking distance in the second set, but could not get closer than a five-point deficit down the stretch. Sterling’s Emma Sinn came in the game and ended up with the final kill of the match before an error ended it.

Sterling finished with 17 kills to Galesburg’s seven. The Silver Streaks had seven aces, as Josslyn Peck and Taylor Herchenroder (five digs) each had two kills.

Sterling has another Big 6 match Thursday at Alleman.

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