SIDNEY — Piqua made a Greater Western Ohio Conference American North Division match at Sidney on Thursday interesting — in more ways than one. But the Yellow Jackets won the third and fourth games by 25-16 scores to earn a 3-1 victory over the Indians.
Sidney won the first game 25-10, but Piqua won the second 25-20.
“We just talked about how we had to come together and play as a group,” Sidney coach Lauren Morrow said of the team’s response after losing the second game. “We tell them all the time that we can do a lot individually, but when we play tough as a group, we can be pretty tough to beat. We talked to them about staying tough, staying together and moving on from our mistakes.”
Sidney scored the first two points of the fourth games on what Piqua’s coaching staff thought were questionable line calls. Piqua coach Liana Michael was given a warning and was forced to sit the rest of the game. She pulled her chair up to the basketball sideline and later encouraged the entire team to do the same.
The protest helped spark the Indians, as they built a 14-11 lead. After a timeout, the Yellow Jackets scored six consecutive points, with five coming while senior Alina Kindle was serving. Senior Arielle Snider later served the last five points to help the Yellow Jackets to victory.
“We really just had to regroup there,” Morrow said of Sidney’s response in the fourth game. “We kind of have a tendency to let other team’s good things take away from what we want to do, and we just had to focus on what we needed to accomplish and figure out what we can control.
Snider and Kindle led the Jackets’ front line with 11 kills each while Darien McBride followed with 10 and Abby Nuss added seven. Faith Bockrath directed the offense with 37 assists. McBride and Bockrath each scored two solo blocks and McBride had two block assists.
Snider dominated the serving line, serving 30-of-31 with nine aces. Kindle landed three aces and picked up 12 digs to lead the defense. Payton Boshears was right behind with 11 digs and Allie Herrick hustled for 10.
Morrow said a different player has stepped up each match all season for Sidney and credits all the team for contributing. She said she was especially pleased Thursday with Bockrath, who was playing while dealing with illness.
“She’s not feeling well, but we just told her we needed her right now and needed her to put the team above herself, and she did,” Morrow said. “It’s a different person all the time, and we’ve come to depend on that. I thought Abby Nuss played really consistently all night, and she’s new to that front line this year. When she’s on, we can really accomplish some good things as a team.”
Sidney is 13-7 overall with the win and 8-5 in GWOC American League play. The Yellow Jackets will wrap up regular season play with conference matches next week at Butler and home against Greenville.
“There was a few we should have won this year, but that number has decreased every year I’ve been here,” Morrow said. “We’ve went from about eight we should have won to about three we should have won. We did some good things this week, including take a set from Troy (on Tuesday). That’s certainly an accomplishment we’re proud of.”
The victory increases Sidney’s lead over Piqua in the all-sports trophy competition. After Thursday’s win, Sidney has a 6-3 lead over Piqua. It was the final meeting between teams from the two schools for fall sports.
It’s the second year the schools are competing for an all-sports trophy, which is tabulated by a points system. In sports where Piqua and Sidney teams play once a season, one point is awarded. In sports where teams play twice (like volleyball), .5 points are awarded.
Tuesday’s victory completed a season sweep for the program over Piqua. The Yellow Jackets earned a 3-0 victory over the Indians on Aug. 28 in Piqua.
Anna 3, Fort Loramie 2
Anna won a Shelby County Athletic League match on Thursday in Fort Loramie. The Rockets won the first set 25-18, third set 25-18 and fifth set 15-13. The Redskins won the second set 25-16 and fourth set 25-15.
Emma Meyer had 22 kills while Macy Wiktorowski had 11 and Madison Roe had seven. Lexi Wells had 52 assists while Abby Counts had 19 digs. Meyer had four block assists and Lauren Barhorst had three block assists.
Marissa Meiring led the Redskins with 17 kills while Ava Sholtis had 15 and Alexis Fleckenstein and Chloe Stang each had 11. Maya Maurer had 29 assists and Aleah Frilling had 24. Emily Austin had 16 digs and Hannah Pleiman had three aces.
Jackson Center 3, Botkins 0
Jackson Center beat Botkins 25-13, 25-9, 25-14 in an SCAL match on Thursday.
Raquel Kessler had 19 kills and seven digs for the Tigers while Elizabeth Hickey had five. Ashley Mullenhour had nine assists, Caroline Frieders had 21 assists and Kate Sosby had nine digs.
Janell Greve had seven digs, five kills and three blocks. Meg Russell had eight assists, Paige Doseck had 11 digs, four kills and four blocks.
Fairlawn 3, Houston 2
The Jets beat Houston 15-10 in the fifth set of an SCAL match on Thursday to claim victory. Fairlawn won the first and third set by 25-18 scores while Houston won the second 25-19 and fourth 25-18.
Lauren Dudgeon had 28 kills, 21 digs, two blocks and one ace. Jessie Abke had 22 digs, six kills, six aces and three blocks while MaCalla Huelskamp had 26 digs, five kills and one ace. Taylor Lessing had 21 digs, 42 assists and three aces and Veagus Gallimore had 25 digs and eight kills.
“Girls played hard and fought to the end,” Fairlawn coach Jodi Hickman said. “They did not give up. Houston is a scrappy team that came to win, we fought hard for this win.”
Kenzie Wenrick led the Wildcats with 15 kills and Catryn Mohler had 12. Alyssa Kemp had 22 assists, 12 digs and three blocks and Allisen Foster had 13 digs and four aces. Hannah Hollinger had seven blocks and two kills, Hayden Riesenbeck had 10 kills, six digs and five blocks and Hannah Bixler had nine digs. Mariah Booher had eight digs and four blocks and Olivia Bowser had 24 digs.
Lehman Catholic 3, Lima Perry 0
The Cavaliers beat Perry 25-8, 25-13, 25-12 in a Northwest Central Conference match on Thursday.
Alexis Snipes had 33 assists and Olivia Lucia had 16 kills for Lehman. Lauren McFarland had nine kills and eight digs, Reese Geise had seven kills and Abby Schutt had six kills.
New Bremen 3, Marion Local 2
The Cardinals earned a tough Midwest Athletic Conference victory on Thursday by winning the fifth set 17-15. New Bremen won the second set 25-21 and third set 25-23 while the Flyers won the first 25-23 and fourth 25-22.
Macy Puthoff had 14 kills for New Bremen while Josie Reinhart, Rachel Kremer and Claire Pape each had 12. Madison Pape had 29 assists and Blake Snider had 14 digs.
New Knoxville 3, Minster 0
The Rangers won a MAC match 25-11, 25-23 and 25-16 on Thursday.
Ava Sharp had eight kills for the Wildcats while Lilly Pelletier had four. Emily Stubbs had 21 digs and Sharp had 12, while Brooke Wolf had 13 assists and Kaitlyn Wolf had 12.
New Knoxville statistics were not reported.
Girls soccer
Lehman Catholic 4, Lima Central Catholic 1
The Cavaliers earned a Western Ohio Soccer League victory on Thursday.
Lindsey Magoteaux had two goals and one assist. Grace Monnin and Ava Behr both had goals, while Lyndsey Jones and Grace Olding both had assists.
Anna 16, Delphos St. John’s 0
The Rockets closed out WOSL play with a lopsided win on Thursday.
Taylor Noll and Tanner Spangler each scored four goals for Anna, while Taylor Kauffman and Marissa VanGorden each scored two. Claire Bensman, Brooke Hemsworth, Sarah Ham and Breelyn Berner each scored one for the Rockets.
Kyplyn Rowland had three assists while Noll, Kauffman, Michaela Ambos, Bree Tribbett and Spangler each had one assist.
Savanna Hostetler had one save in the shutout win.
Botkins 1, Spencerville 0
Katie Egbert scored Botkins’ goal on a shot from about 25 yards out to lift the team to a win on Thursday.
Boys soccer
Sidney 2, Stebbins 2
Sidney tied Stebbins in a Greater Western Ohio Conference American North Division match on Thursday.
Damien Jones scored a goal on an assist by Carson Taylor to put Sidney up 1-0 early, but the Indians came back and tied it. Braden Guinther scored a goal on an assist by Jaden Humphrey before halftime to put the Yellow Jackets up 2-1, but Stebbins scored a goal late in the second half to tie it up.
“We played really well tonight it was not the result we wanted, but we will take it,” Sidney coach Jamie Fridley said. “We were two evenly-matched teams. … (In the) second half, Stebbins started to get pressure on our back line, which was banged up with injuries. With about eight minutes left, they finally cracked our banged-up line for the tying goal.”
Lehman Catholic 2, Lima Central Catholic 1
No information was reported.
Jackson Center 2, Temple Christian 1
No information was reported.
