The girls volleyball team overpowered the Aragon Dons in four sets—25-12, 22-25, 25-13, and 25-21—on Tuesday evening. The game was highlighted by tremendous defense and long-lasting rallies.
The Bears started off with a bang, with commanding offense from sophomore setter Ingrid Howse and senior opposite hitter Louisa King*, building M-A an early 7-1 lead.
The Dons began to climb back, responding with several kills of their own. However, authoritative spikes by junior middle blocker Emerson Edwards* and senior outside hitter Sophie Marks allowed the Bears to remain ahead, 14-6, and Howse preserved M-A’s momentum with tremendous defense and sets. Aragon struggled to respond to the Bears’ synchronized teamwork, and M-A won the set 25-12.
“Aragon runs a pretty slow offense, so we were able to not get manipulated by them and just focus on our play, especially in the first set,” senior middle blocker Addy Moeller said.
The Bears initially struggled in the second set, failing to defend against Aragon’s attacks, and they quickly found themselves down 8-6. The Dons sustained their lead through accurate ball placement, and several defensive errors from M-A left the Bears trailing 17-11.
Despite this, M-A continued to battle, barely falling short in a series of long rallies. As the set progressed, the Dons’ defense began to break, opening a path for the Bears to attack. Edwards shifted the energy with a thunderous block to set the score at 20-14.
M-A continued to capitalize on Aragon’s defensive errors, and after multiple aces from junior libero Bella Schmitz, the Bears closed the gap to just one point, 23-22. However, they let a few of the Dons’ kills slip through, and the set concluded 25-23 in favor of Aragon.
“There were definitely some unforced errors, just with hitting and with passing. I mean, there’s some balls that just drop when they don’t need to drop.” Moeller said.
M-A hoped to flip a switch going into the third set, and they succeeded. Junior outside hitter Gabby Lowe led the Bears to an early lead with several kills. King extended the advantage with a couple stuff blocks, putting M-A up 7-3.
Aragon continued to struggle against the Bears’ offensive power, as Edwards and Marks asserted dominance with an abundance of spikes to bring M-A ahead 12-7.
As the match proceeded, the Dons failed to catch up to the Bears’ hot streak. Fiery offense and excellent teamwork gave M-A a significant 17-9 lead.
“We slowed down in the second set, but we picked back up, and ran some other plays with the middle and with the right side, not as much with the outside,” Moeller said.
Lowe overwhelmed Aragon with consistent hits to the back of the court, forcing the Dons to rally to keep the ball in bounds. After numerous kills by Marks, the Bears won the set 25-13.
After a tough start, M-A regrouped and surpassed Aragon 6-3 with tactical offense from Lowe and Edwards. As the set went on, the Bears remained on top, and the Dons struggled to match their pace as they fell behind, 13-7.
The Dons sparked a comeback by finding open spots in between players, but their comeback was short-lived when challenged by Moeller’s numerous attacks. A brief timeout was followed by yet another hot streak from the Bears, and Aragon failed to defend kill after kill from Marks, eventually giving M-A a 22-15 lead.
As the end of the set neared, things started to fall apart for the Bears. The Dons were able to retaliate with kills of their own, cutting M-A’s lead down to 23-20. Despite this, the Bears responded with outstanding defense from Howse and took the set 25-21 to win the game.
“I thought our energy was amazing, and that’s really what drove our whole game,” Lowe said.
The Bears will travel to play the Sequoia Ravens on Thursday at 5:45 p.m.
*Louisa King and Emerson Edwards are journalists for the M-A Chronicle.
