Volleyball: Sterling seniors go out in style at Musgrove

STERLING – Senior Night at Musgrove Fieldhouse kicked off Thursday with Delali Amankwa being honored for breaking the all-time career assists record for Sterling volleyball.

It ended with Amankwa setting her final assist on her home court to fellow senior Carley Sullivan for a thunderous kill in a 25-10, 25-10 win over Mendota.

Seven seniors were announced in the starting lineup for the Golden Warriors (21-9), and all eight recorded a stat in the victory. It was the perfect ending to their careers at Musgrove.

[ Photos from Sterling vs. Mendota volleyball ]

“It’s very heartwarming, and it also makes you sad, because you’ve been playing with these girls forever. Your heart just goes into every single point, and you’re not really worried about the stats, you’re focusing more on who you’re playing with,” senior Emma Sinn said. “We wanted to go out and play as hard as we possibly could, being at home for the last time. We just wanted to play our hearts out and put everything on the floor, and we all did that tonight, very much so.”

Senior Natalie Eddinger stuffed a block and Sullivan served an ace, then Sinn had a kill and an ace as the Warriors opened the match with a 9-2 spurt. Senior Payton Ottens spiked a kill for a 10-3 margin, then classmate Marley Sechrest served an ace and Sullivan had two kills in a four-point run, before Eddinger slammed down an overpass and Amankwa reeled off three straight aces for a 20-7 lead.

Eddinger stuffed another block as senior Nora Truedson served three straight points, including an ace, to help finish off the first set.

Alasia Harris-Rascon slammed four consecutive kills and Nia Harris served an ace to open the second set with a 5-0 lead, then Sullivan had a pair of kills a few points later to make it 9-3. A Harris-Rascon block, a Sullivan ace and back-to-back Harris kills stretched it to 15-4.

Senior libero Macy Anderson served five straight points – one on an Amankwa dump kill, another on a Harris spike, and a third on an ace – to put Sterling up 21-6. Harris spiked a kill and Sechrest stuffed a block to get to 23-8, then Sullivan ripped a back-row kill and the aforementioned final spike in a three-point span to finish off the match.

“Emotions were definitely high. We’re such a close group of girls, so we knew it was going to kind of be that way – but we wanted to take it out as hard as we could in our last moments on this court together and not let up, no matter what,” Sechrest said. “It means a lot to win this match, and it’s really exciting to get to play with the girls tonight; we’ve all played together since we were in sixth grade, so it’s just really fun to all go out there and do it one last time together.”

The Warriors got the job done on both offense and defense, finishing with 18 kills and five blocks at the net, while also recording more than 30 digs in the back row to limit Mendota (7-21-1) to eight kills and one stuff block in the match.

“It’s really nice knowing that we have the balance between back row and offense that we can win with either. We’re all reliable all over the court, so it’s a really good feeling that we were able to play well and pull it out tonight,” Anderson said. “We knew we had to get the job done tonight, and we had to play our game no matter what, because we didn’t want to let them hang around and think they had a chance against us. We knew that we just wanted to play our game well, and if we did that, we would succeed, and that’s what we did.”

Anderson led the way with 10 digs, and Sullivan added eight digs, six kills, nine points and two aces. Amankwa dished 15 assists to go with six points and three aces. Harris and Harris-Rascon each had four kills, while Harris-Rascon added three digs and a block, and Harris chipped in five points and an ace. Sechrest and Truedson each had three points and an ace, with Sechrest adding a block, and Eddinger (two blocks), Sinn (two points, one ace) and Ottens each spiked a kill.

“It really hypes us up knowing that anybody who steps on the court can have a part in it,” Sinn said, “and knowing that we’re all out there together putting our hearts into it and putting all our energy toward it means so much.”

Amankwa runs her SHS-record career assists total to 2,142, after breaking current Loyola Chicago setter Bree Borum’s old record of 2,091 in Monday’s match against LaSalle-Peru. Before Thursday’s match, her teammates all came onto the court as a group and presented her with the ball that she broke the record with – coincidentally, on an assist to Sullivan.

Kennedy Knaff led Mendota with three kills, Ella Cross spiked two kills, and Ella Martin had five assists and an ace. Lailey Denault, Addi Jones and Harlow Folty each added a kill, and Elaina Koch stuffed a block.

“I think we battled. Remember, we have nobody who played at all last year on this team, so we’re doing pretty good,” Mendota coach Demi Salazar said. “… But they have a lot: a lot of jumpers, a lot of good players.

“The last four teams that we’ve seen have all been tough, and then we’ve got a tournament at Stillman Valley on Saturday, and four of the teams that are there are ranked No. 1 in their regionals and pretty much in their sectional, so it should prepare us for the postseason. We’ve just got to keep playing hard.”