Noblesville’s Lucy Ryerson (12) hits the ball during the Millers’ match with Avon Thursday. Also pictured for Noblesville is Piper Endris (11). (Quinn Matthews)
By QUINN MATTHEWS
quinn@readthereporter.com
NOBLESVILLE – The Noblesville Millers volleyball team picked up its first Hoosier Crossroads Conference win of the season at home Thursday against the Avon Orioles. Every set was closely matched, but the Millers were able to finish with a final win of 3-1.
Avon opened the first set with a quick three-point lead, but the Millers answered to even the score, followed by a back-and-forth scoring battle. However, Avon turned up the pressure and closed out the set with a strong finish, with a seven-point lead to win the set 25–18.
In the second set, Avon started out strong again, but this time the Millers rallied with a comeback. In a hard-fought set, after a long point-for-point exchange, Noblesville gained control to win 25–18.
With both teams even in set wins, the pressure intensified into the third set. The Orioles had great spikes from Ania Kilburn putting multiple points on the board, but they were never guaranteed with Reese Resmer blocking them at the net for the Millers. Lucy Ryerson sent spike after spike to Avon ending the third set 25-15.
At the start of the fourth set, the Orioles started out extremely strong, going up 9-2 with Avery Walter sending balls right through Miller’s defense. Once it started to look like the set wins would end in a tie, the Millers gave it their all to finally secure the win beating Avon 25-21.
“At the end we fought a lot more than we started with, we were slow to start but we were able to go on runs there at the end,” said Millers Coach Annie Poulson.
Noblesville plans to sharpen their ability to start their next match strong, while Avon leaves the match motivated to continue growing and improving as a team.
“I think we played with a lot of heart, I think we started off strong and had some really good spurts, we just need to put more of them together in a row,” said Orioles Coach Kyla Thomas.
The Millers have added another win to their now 4-1 record for the season while The Orioles are now 0-8. The Noblesville Millers play again at 10 a.m. Saturday at Guerin Catholic. The Avon Orioles play next at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 4 at home against Hamilton Southeastern.
