Tuesday’s loss to Cardinal revealed a weakness in Kirtland’s defense.
In response, Bob Schenosky shuffled his lineup and the Hornets responded with a 3-0 sweep at Newbury on Wednesday.
“The girls responded after a difficult game against Cardinal,” Schenosky said. “They were very upbeat tonight. I thought we did a nice job.”
Schenosky moved Julia Ricketti to libero in the first set, which Kirtland won, 25-9. Taylor Frazee filled that role in the second, won by the Hornets, 26-24, and the Hornets went with their regular lineup in the third game to close out the match with a 25-10 win.
“Cardinal is a good team, but I think part of our difficulty is serve reception,” Schenosky said. “By moving some people around they responded. Our serve reception numbers were exceptional today, not only by the people I put in at libero but we played our regular lineup in the third game and again the numbers were solid.”
Ricketti recorded 15 digs in the match.
“It was definitely a change playing libero but overall the team did a great job in contributing to our win,” she said. ‘
Schenosky filled his lineup with underclassmen in the second set to give those players an opportunity to see game action. He believes that experience will help the Hornets heading into the post-season.
“In the second game I played a lot of our younger players and they responded,” he said. “In the third game we came back and beat them 25-10. We hit the ball well and played fundamentally sounds, which was something that was missing (against Cardinal).”
Lydia Shiffler recorded five kills from her right side position and Gina Ponzani added four kills from the strong side.
Olivia Mancisio continued to be a force for the Hornets at the net as she notched seven kills and five blocks.
With the win, the Hornets improved to 8-7 overall. They close out the week with a game at Harvey on Thursday then travel to Cuyahoga Heights on Tuesday, host VASJ on Wednesday and Richmond Heights on Thursday before playing their seventh game in 12 days at Brush the following Saturday.
“I think it’s good for us,” Schenosky said of playing seven matches in less than two weeks. “We’ve got a couple of difficult matches slated. The idea was to prepare us well for the playoffs.”
