Volleyball: Newman finds a way to defeat Dixon in back-and-forth battle

DIXON – The Newman volleyball team just found a way to win on Monday night in Dixon.

The Comets rallied from a 20-14 deficit to win the first set, then held off a pesky Duchesses squad after watching a 24-20 lead disappear in the second set to win 25-23, 28-26 at Lancaster Gym.

“We definitely needed to start better than that; obviously you want to build a lead, but it is fun to come back,” sophomore hitter Kennedy Rowzee said. “I think it was just our communication; we just needed to talk it out point point by point, come through for each other, and just finish it off.”

Dixon (1-1) saw several players step up throughout the first set. Mallory Coley, Ella Govig, Olivia Cox and Joey Brumbly all had kills or blocks at the net, and the Duchesses seemed to thrive on out-of-system possessions to build the 20-14 lead.

“One thing we’re really good at is being able to work through the unpredictable and just go with the flow,” senior setter Holli Miller said. “That really helped us, being able to adapt quickly and just go with it. We trust each other and have faith, and everyone can step up and play great when it’s their turn. If someone’s struggling, someone else steps up and takes the lead, and that’s what we need.”

Ally Clevenger started the Comets’ comeback with a kill, then Rowzee stuffed a block and slammed a kill to get Newman within 20-18. Rowzee answered a Brumbly kill with another to make it 21-19, then slammed yet another kill to get the Comets back within two at 22-20.

After a Jessalin Johns kill finally tied the score at 23-23, a hitting error by Dixon gave Newman its first lead of the match. Paige Grennan served an ace to close out the opening set.

“I think we all just needed to come together as a team,” Rowzee said. “We were struggling and messing around and not getting it done; our serves really killed us. But overall, we ended up coming through and pulling it together at the end.”

The second set was the polar opposite. Clevenger, Zoey Bulfer and Rowzee helped Newman (3-0) build a lead, then the Duchesses rallied before the teams see-sawed back and forth. Kills by Ella Govig and Sam Tourtillott gave Dixon a 19-18 lead, then Johns tied for Newman. Cox then tied it for Dixon at 20-20 with a block.

Clevenger then came through down the stretch for the Comets. She slammed three consecutive kills to make it 24-20.

“The sets were great, and then we were getting our passes up, which is key to having a good attack,” Clevenger said. “I think just hitting spots when we were going up to attack, and then picking up tips on defense. That’s something we struggled with, so once we got that together, we were able to pull out a win.”

Dixon didn’t make it easy, though. A Tourtillott kill staved off match point, then a violation and a hitting error by Newman made it 24-23 before Miller’s perfectly-placed dump found the floor to tie the set at 24-24. Natalie Davidson’s ace gave Dixon a 25-24 lead.

Kills by Clevenger and Rowzee put Newman at match point again, but a service error tied it up at 26-26. But Clevenger came through again with a kill, and Katie Grennan ended it with an ace for the Comets.

“We found ways to pull it out,” Newman coach Debbi Kelly said. “Kudos to Dixon, they played a tough match. I think it’s good to get these tight matches, just to see where we are mentally and work hard to pull through. It’s not one person, it’s everyone doing their jobs.”

“It’s good to have tough matches in the beginning of the season, so you can work everything out and see what you need to work on for conference,” Clevenger added.

Clevenger finished with 14 kills and 12 digs, and Rowzee added nine kills and a block. Johns had four kills, Bulfer spiked two, and Shae McNeill dished 19 assists. Katie Grennan added eight assists and two aces, and Paige Grennan finished with 16 digs, nine points and four aces.

“Newman is a really good team, I want to give them credit. They have a lot of firepower, and we just didn’t catch up to a lot of the balls they hit at us,” Dixon coach Bunyan Cocar said. “They fought and we fought and it was a good fight in a good atmosphere tonight.”

Coley and Ella Govig each had five kills for Dixon, with Coley adding six digs and Govig stuffing two blocks. Cox finished with two kills and six blocks, Tourtillott spiked four kills and Brumbly finished with three kills and a block. Miller had 10 assists and seven digs, Hanna Lengquist added seven assists, and Elena Castillo-Wetzell chipped in 15 digs.

“We talked before [the match] as a group, and we knew what we had to do. We’ve struggled with some things, and we knew that’s what we needed to work on tonight – and those were the main things we focused on,” Miller said. “We improved on those, which I think is a plus for the team. It was a loss, but on the plus side, we’re learning and we’re getting better.”

“We are a never-say-die kind of team,” Cocar added. “We’re a very resilient team – we’ve proved that in both our matches this year – and we’ve learned that we have to keep playing until the ball dies and not give up. It’s a much better formula for a winning team to have the ball spread out to a bunch of different hitters instead of putting all the pressure on one girl, but we just let a few points slip away there, and we didn’t ride the momentum well enough. Our girls are proving to themselves that they’re able and tough enough to play with anybody, so I think we’re learning that and we’ve just got to keep that confidence going forward.”