Pilots Sweep Big Reds
Macey Ladyga provided 13 points with four aces, 13 kills, three digs, and blocked a shot to help lead the River Pilots in a season sweep Sept. 18 in straight sets, 25-10, 25-23 and 25-21, inside the Bellaire Big Red Gymnasium.
River had an easy time in the first set, winning 25-10, but saw the Big Reds’ A-Game in the second set (25-23) and third set (25-21) to win the season series, 6-0.
Lauren Flannery followed Ladyga with 10 points with an ace, nine kills, one block shot and an assist, while Allison Bennett dished out 33 assists. and scored six points with two aces, and added a kill and bumped up a dig.
In addition, Candace Caldwell provided six points with an ace, two digs, one kill, one block and a pair of assists, while Cortny Sapp powered the Lady Pilots with nine kills and scored two points. Katie Straub tallied four points, dished out an assist, and drilled five kills. Lacey Cordery scored half of her four points via aces, and added a pair of digs, along with teammate Morgan Mahoney.
The Pilots would have played their next two matches at Paden City and Union Local Sept. 24 and 25 respectively, before press time, but will host the Frontier Cougars Sept. 27 with a start up time of 5:30 p.m.
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Lady Tigers Knock-off Pilots In Straight Sets
Lauren Flannery and Katie Straub shared 10 points, 10 digs and six kills, but it wasn’t quite enough to get past the visiting Shadyside Tigers in straight sets on Sept. 17 inside a tournament type of atmosphere.
In the first set, both teams went back and forth before the Lady Tigers took charge at the end, winning 25-18. Shadyside didn’t have much trouble in the second set, winning 25-15 and setting up the third set show-down.
The Lady Pilots were familiar with dropping two sets and coming back to win the match, as they did earlier this season against Union Local. During that match, the Pilots came back to win the next three sets, including the tie-breaker.
However on this day the Pilots just ran out of gas and lost, 25-23, in a nail-biter.
Flannery added a block, while Straub added an assist and the Pilots’ only service ace in the match. Candace Caldwell provided three service points, two assists and bumped up 10 digs to pace the River Pilots.
In addition, Allison Bennett passed out 16 assists, had 10 digs and scored one service point. Cortny Sapp provided two points, three kills, five digs and had one block, while Macey Ladyga laid to rest six kills, four blocks and bumped up three digs. Lacey Cordery had nine digs, while Morgan Mahoney and Hailey Nevins each had a dig for all the River statistics.