Corry Volleyball finishes 2nd at end of season Maplewood Tournament

Scott Lockwood
4 days ago
4 min read

Corry Volleyball poses for a picture at the end of the year Maplewood volleyball tournament. Corry finished as the runner ups as they tune up for the PIAA District ten playoffs.

Report by Kelly Goodsel

Corry Volleyball Head Coach

Guys Mills, PA - The Corry volleyball team attended the annual Maplewood tournament that marks the end of the regular season and brings together many of the top District 10 teams to help prepare for the upcoming playoffs.

Corry started off pool play with two wins against a familiar opponent, the Saegertown Panthers who was our opponent on Thursday night. Corry controlled the first set against Fort LeBeouf, the second set was much more competitive with the game tied at every point from 14-14 through 22-22. Fort LeBeouf took the 23-22 lead after a Corry hitting error and coach Goodsel took a timeout. After another Corry hitting error, the lady bison had game point at 24-22, but Corry responded with kills by Regan Kemp and a setter dump by Haley Mumau tying up the game. Fort LeBeouf had an error and then Grace Allen blocked a bison attack right to the floor for the 26-24 win.

Corry took care of business in the third pool play match against Cochranton. A much improved McDowell Trojans team took the first set off of Corry with tough serving, good blocking, and strong hitting. Corry came back in the second set with a little more focus and managed to split with McDowell.

Corry entered the last pool play event in first place with a 7-1 record and as long as

they won one set, they would be first in the pool entering the playoffs. Corry took care of

business winning the first set 25-20 which allowed for a lot of extra playing time for some of the younger players in the second set.

“Getting extended playing time as a freshmen (Alivia Swan, Ava West, Jordyn Watrous, Maci

Kemp) is huge for their development and improves the competitiveness of our practice gym”

commented coach Goodsel. “We gave up too many easy free balls, which made Conneaut’s

offense run faster and more efficient; it is hard to play defense against a full speed team in system. It was a good lesson and great experience for our kids” noted Goodsel.

Corry seeded number one in our pool played Meadville (who beat McDowell) in the quarterfinals. Meadville took their first timeout trailing 10-5 after middle hitter Kendall Donoghue had two kills sandwiched around a Regan Kemp kill. Meadville would get close at 14-11 on two serve receive errors by Corry, but after a Meadville serving error, Corry’s Sydney Mineo rattled off two consecutive aces and 17-11. Freshmen opposite Ava West had a kill establishing the seven point lead that would continue to the end. Fellow freshmen Alivia Swan scored the final point on a kill out of the middle, helping Corry win 25-18.

The win set up the rematch that many fans were waiting for, Corry vs. Warren, which was the semi- final match from last week’s Cochranton Tournament. Revenge was on the mind of the Corry players and Warren wanted to prove that last week was the norm. Warren jumped out to an early 8-4 lead, but Corry responded scoring twelve of the next eighteen points and forcing a Warren timeout trailing 16-14. Corry juniors Regan Kemp and Rylee Nickerson had back-to-back kills and stretched the lead to 21-15. Kemp had another kill and Grace Allen had the final kill of the game to win 25-19.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, tournament host Maplewood was taking care of

business beating Fort LeBoeuf in the semi-finals, setting up the finals between the number one seeds (Maplewood in A and Corry in AA) in the District 10 tournament. In a very entertaining game with great energy, Maplewood jumped out to a 7-4 lead on a couple of Corry hitting errors. Kendall Donoghue had a well placed kill to the back corner and then blocked a Maplewood attack to the floor to make the score 7-6 Maplewood. Maplewood would go on a 7-2 run and force Corry’s first timeout (14-8). Corry responded to the timeout and after kills by Allen, Kemp, and two more kills by Nickerson, the lady beavers had closed the six point lead to only two, 18-16. A few more kills by Allen and Nickerson, and a great swing by Ava West and the game was tied 22-22. After a Maplewood timeout, the lady tigers responded with three straight kills, two ricocheting off of Corry block attempts to win the tournament 25-22

“It was a lot of fun to play good competition, see a lot of different line-ups, and get done with the day healthy. It was a great tournament for us all.15 players saw action and registered stats. All four setters (senior Ava Hallberg – led the team with 74 assists, junior Haley Mumau, sophomore Naomi Brown, and freshmen Maci Kemp) saw action and assisted on kills. All four defensive players saw lots of action and played libero at some point: senior Brynley Watrous led the team with 39 digs, fellow senior Sydney Mineo had 22 digs, and juniors Ali Yetzer and Ellie Carey had 20 and 15 digs respectively. Offensively Allen and Kemp led in kills on the outside; middle hitters were led by Rylee Nickerson (19 kills), Kendall Donoghue (8 kills) and freshmen Alivia Swan with two kills, and opposite hitter Ava West had 7 kills and five digs. Serving specialist, Jordyn Watrous was 100% from the service line, collecting an ace and a dig” stated coach Kelly Goodsel.

Corry will be looking forward to the District ten playoffs. They have a first round bye and will wait to see who their opponent will be. The Beavers will play the winner of the

Eisenhower (8) vs Hickory (9) match that takes place on Tuesday at 6:00 PM at Franklin High School. They Playoffs will be streamed live on the DeeJ Experience Sports Stream. If you would like to sponsor the playoffs as a business or donate to our efforts as an individual, please visit our website at https://www.deejexperience.com/piaad10fallplayoffs. Further details will be released in the coming days with opponent, time, and place.