Lady Wolverines prevent sweep by rival Panthers

The lady Wolverines followed up an exciting match with the Fruitland Grizzlies by hosting the Parma Panthers in the Weiser gym on Oct. 3.

 The Lady Wolverines were neck and neck with the Panthers, trading points to the 11-11 mark. The Wolverines were playing very aggressively and had some great saves, but they began to fall behind as a result of communication errors.  

 The spark that was apparent early in the set began to diminish with every mistake, and the Wolverines gave up the first set 19-25.

 The Lady Wolverines regrouped between sets and came out in set No. 2 with more accuracy and better enthusiasm.  

 Despite falling behind 1-3, the Wolverines rallied back and with the help of an ace serve from Sara Lundberg, the Wolverines took the lead 6-5. Bella Strasser added another ace serve and Reagan Doty and Grace Soulen combined to block a hard hit back onto the Panther side.  

 The Wolverines continued to dominate the set with May Erke serving up back-to-back aces and Doty dropping her famous tip for the kill. Macy Beuscher added a kill and Macy Moore served up an ace to give the Wolverines a 16-10 lead.  

 Unfortunately the Wolverines stumbled with a series of hitting errors and allowed the Panthers back into the set, tying the set 17-17 and then surpassing the Wolverines to take the second set 23-25.

 The Wolverines started the third set strong, keeping the score close to the 7-7 mark, but things began to shift toward the Panthers and they were able to go on an 8-1 scoring surge. 

 Lundberg finally stopped the scoring with a kill.  Beuscher scored a trio of points for the Wolverines and Lundberg came up with another kill, placing her back to serve.  A backrow kill by Lundberg, a pair of kills by Soulen and an ace serve by Strasser tied the set once again 18-18, prompting a Panther time-out.  

 Doty found the only Panther coverage hole to place her tip into, which gave the Wolverines the momentum they needed to take the third set 25-20 and prevent a sweep.

 The battle continued between these two rival teams into the fourth set, with points traded to the 8-8 mark when the Panthers began to pull away.  A long exhausting rally that culminated in a Panther kill seemed to take some of the wind out of the Wolverine sails and the Panthers went on a 7-0 scoring run.  Kills by both Doty and Soulen added points to the Wolverine tally, but the Weiser ladies had lost their spark and gave up the fourth set 14-25 and the match 1-3.