Lady Pilots Cruising at 5-0

Photo by Bruce Crawford The River Pilots’ Lauren Flannery places a dink over top the Monroe Central Seminoles for a point, while #18 Cortney Sapp and #22 Candace Caldwell look on
Lauren Flannery and Macey Ladyga combined for 19 points, six service aces, 15 kills,13 digs and five blocks to lead the River Pilots volleyball team to their fifth straight victory by the scores of 25-17, 25-14 and 25-13 on Aug. 30 at RL Potts Gymnasium.
Allison Bennett dished out 25 assists, while making 13 digs and belting one kill. Candace Caldwell added 10 points – including two aces, four digs and one assist, while Cortney Sapp and Katie Straub combined for 10 points, three aces, 11 kills and 11 digs.
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Pilots Improve To 4-0, Sweep Martins Ferry
The River Pilots’ volleyball team improved to 4-0 after sweeping Martins Ferry, 25-18, 25-9 and 25-12, on Aug. 29 inside RL Potts Gymnasium.
River took control in the first set, winning 25-18. In the second set, it was all Pilots as they defeated the Purple Riders, 25-9, while cruising to a 25-12 third set victory.
Cortny Sapp tallied a game-high 13 points, which included four service aces, while adding nine kills and four digs. Macey Ladyga followed with 12 points, including six aces, while adding nine digs, eight kills and one block. Lauren Flannery garnished a double-double with 10 points and 10 kills, while adding six digs and one service ace.
In addition, Candace Caldwell and Katie Straub evenly split 14 points, with Straub adding three aces, seven kills and four digs, while Caldwell provided three digs and had one service ace. Allison Bennett dished out 32 assists, while scoring two points, including an ace, four digs, one kill and one block. Morgan Mahoney finished the Pilots’ stats and bumped up six digs.
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Pilots Grab Four-Set Victory Over Monroe Central
The Pilots’ Cortny Sapp served up the final two points in a fourth set, including a game-ending service ace, to knock-off county rival Monroe Central Aug. 28 inside RL Potts Gymnasium.
Lauren Flannery served up the first four points to open the match, including an ace, but the Lady Seminoles fought back to take a 5-4 advantage that also included an ace.
From there, the battle went back and forth until Katie Straub served up six straight points that included kills by Flannery, Sapp and Macey Ladyga, and a nifty dink by Allison Bennett to grab a 14-8 before the ‘Noles won back the serve.
After a Bennett kill that gave the Pilots an 18-16 advantage, she served up two straight points that gave the Pilots a 20-16 lead. After the Seminoles broke serve, they would tally four straight points to knot the set at 20-20, and River head coach Judi Curtis to call a time-out.
After the short break, Ladyga drilled a rocket to give River the lead and serve. It seemed in this match, that after a great kill, the person who had the kill would be the server. Indeed, it did on this one too. She then served up a point on a Flannery kill before giving back the serve.
It didn’t take long for the Pilots to get the serve back as the ‘Noles had their third service error of the match, and better yet, a 23-22 when Monroe Central broke serve.
Flannery blasted her sixth kill of the match to retake the serve and a 24-22 lead. Only needing a point to win the first set with Candace Caldwell serving, and Sapp drilling an ace to give the hosts a thrilling 25-22 first set victory.
Monroe Central opened the second set with a service fault. River took advantage and scored four straight points with Ladyga at the line before giving the serve back to Monroe Central on a service fault of their own.
The Pilots broke serve on a Straub kill and would serve up an ace before the visitors broke serve on a kill of their own, but would give it right back with another miscue at the line.
Caldwell served up two points, that included an ace, but Flannery got caught in the net on a kill attempt and gave the service back to their guests, with a 10-3 lead.
Monroe would cut the deficit in half on an ace at 12-6, but a dink by Ladyga gave the service right back to Morgan Mahoney, who served up four points – including an ace.
It went back and forth with the ‘Noles scoring two points to only one for River until the set was 23-15 after the Seminoles broke serve.
They scored three straight points before Coach Curtis called a time-out with Central closing the gap to 23-18, and just like their last time-out, they would break serve, and won the second set on a Flannery ace.
The third set was a nail-biter as both teams went back and forth with the scoring being all knotted up seven times, including 24-24 when Flannery broke serve at 24-24. However, the ‘Noles would break serve and finish of the set with a kill, winning 26-24.
The fourth set went back-and-forth until the set was all tied up at 23-23 before River broke serve and Sapp ended it with an ace.
“The girls worked very hard for this win,” stated Curtis. “We had a barn-burner against Shadyside the other day and another tonight, and my girls came through once again.”
Straub led the way with 15 service points, including an ace, while making 12 digs and smacking six kills. Flannery and Ladyga combined for 15 points, three aces, 16 kills, 31 digs and four blocks, while Sapp made 11 kills, six digs and scored five points, including a pair of service aces.
In addition, Caldwell provided four points, one ace, one kill, six digs, two assists and blocked a pair of shots. Bennett made 26 assists and bumped up 10 digs, belted five kills and scored four points, that also included an ace. Lacey Cordery had nine digs, while Mahoney tacked on five points, an ace and a dig. Hailey Nevins finished off the River statistics with a pair of digs.