CLARION, Pa. (D9Sports) — Over the last few seasons, the winner of the A-C Valley/Clarion regular-season match has come out as KSAC Champions.
(Photo of Maddie Schill of Clarion, who was the Hager Paving Player of the Game)
Clarion hopes that trend continues after a hard-fought 3-0 (27-25, 28-26, 25-17) win over the visiting Lady Falcons Tuesday night.
Listen to the archived broadcast of the match brought to you by Burns & Burns.
A-C Valley won the KSAC matchup in 2015 and 2017 and won the conference title in both seasons, while Clarion took home the KSAC Championship in 2016 after beating the Lady Falcons.
The Lady Cats seem to be in full control of conference this year after beating their two nearest rivals — Redbank Valley and A-C Valley — already.
On Tuesday, Maddie Schill led Clarion’s offense with 14 kills and was consistent throughout the match with five kills in the opening set, four in the second set and five more in the third set. Her kill in the second set with the set tied at 26 was key to the Clarion victory in the set after both teams had chances to put the set away and failed — A-C Valley led 24-23 and 26-25 and Clarion led 25-24.
For her effort, Schill, who added eight digs, two blocks and two aces, was named the Hager Paving Player of the Game. She talked about the victory.
While Schill earned post-game honors, there were plenty of players on both sides who could have staked a claim for it.
For Clarion, Hailey Sintobin and Korrin Burns each added nine kills with Burns adding eight digs and seven aces and Sintobin a pair of blocks.
Sintobin had a key kill in the second set with Clarion down 26-25 to tie the set and give the Lady Cats a chance. She also had a jill in that set with A-C Valley leading 23-21 that kept the set in balance.
The second set wasn’t the only time Sintobin came up big, as she also had a kill followed by a block in the first set after A-C Valley had rallied from down 21-17 to tie the set at 21 on a Kylee Eaton kill.
Eaton was another player who had a strong match helping keep the Lady Falcons in the match with 11 kills, nine digs and two blocks.
Two of those kills came during the first-set rally after A-C Valley had gotten down 21-17, but she also had a strong second set with five kills, including keeping the set alive when she found the court with a spike with Clarion lead 25-24. She also had three kills in that set to help rally A-C Valley from down 16-12 to tied at 18-all.
Olivia Boocks was another big hitter for the Lady Falcons with a match-high 16 kills to go with 19 digs — she was especially strong in the back row keeping many Clarion attacks from ending in scoring.
Boocks was a main reason A-C Valley stayed in the first set recording three kills during a 5-2 run that saw the Lady Falcons go from down 16-11 wit down 18-16. The eventually tied the set at 21 and then again at 24 before actually taking a 25-24 lead in the set when Clarion was called for being out of the rotation.
But down 25-24 in that first set after the mental error, Clarion responded thanks to the play of Dorothy Kalinowski, who had a kill to tie it at 25 and then a block to give the Lady Cats the 27-25 win in the all-important first set.
Kalinowski finished the night with five kills and three blocks.
Boocks was also A-C Valley’s most consistent player in the third set recording three kills in the set, but that was also the worst of the three sets for the Lady Falcons who watched Clarion used an early 12-3 run to erase a 3-2 deficit and take a 14-6 lead.
Schill and Sintobin both played key roles in Clarion taking that lead with Schill recording three kills and a block with Sintobin adding a pair of kills.
After going ahead 14-6 in the third set, Clarion never let A-C Valley get closer than three, 16-13 on an Eaton kill, the rest of the way and scored five of the final six points, including two more kills by Schill.
Brenna Campbell ran Clarion’s offense with 36 set assists and added a pair of digs, while KK Girvin had a team-best 11 digs.
Emily Wetzel ran the offense for A-C Valley with 20 set assists. Kaylie Merwin chipped in six digs and four assists with Andrea Meals recording three blocks to go with four kills and five digs.
The win improves Clarion to 6-1 overall and 5-0 in the KSAC. The Lady Cats are back in action Thursday against Forest Area at East Forest.
A-C Valley fell to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in conference play. The Lady Falcons are back in action Thursday when they host Cranberry.
