[Baltimore Sun] Mount de Sales volleyball rallies for 3-1 victory over McDonogh after falling in first set
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Mount de Sales knew it had to refocus after being a point away from winning the first set, but watching McDonogh rally to win it. That’s exactly what they did with a vengeance on Thursday night.
The Sailors won the next two sets convincingly and held the pesky Eagles off in the final set for a 26-28, 25-7, 25-9, 25-19 victory on Pink Out night at Mount de Sales.
Before the game, they honored Ana Lohrmann who is battling cancer with aggressive treatment. Lohrmann is the mother of Sailor senior Mayah Lohrmann. The gymnasium was decorated in pink and many fans wore pink to support breast cancer.
“All of our concessions all year are going to the Lohrmann family,” Mount de Sales coach Karen Farr said.
Late Thursday night, a GoFundMe page organized for Ana Lohrmann had raised $21,182 of a $24,880 goal.
The victory was the sixth in seven games for the Sailors and they remained undefeated in the IAAM A Conference with a perfect 3-0 mark. McDonogh dropped to 2-5 overall and 1-3 in conference play.
Brigid Donahue led the Sailors with 15 kills to go with six aces. Anna Fleckenstein had nine kills to go along with four aces and setter Renata Sujeta had four kills, four aces and 29 assists. Libero Lily Farr had 27 digs.
Lauryn Allen, who is committed to Lehigh University, led the Eagles with 12 kills. Graham Crocks added six kills.
The first set was the most intense. The Sailors built leads of 21-14 and 24-21, but watched the Eagles whittle them away. The Sailors got four kills from Donahue and three from Fleckenstein, but Allen countered with six kills and strong defensive play and serving from Cynthia Sun also helped the comeback.
After the Sailors missed their fourth serve of the opening set, Sun fired back-to-back aces to tie it at 24. Still tied at 26, Mentzer’s third consecutive kill gave the Eagles back the lead and they ended it with an ace by Crocks.
Photo by Craig Clary/Staff
Mount de Sales remained undefeated in the IAAM A Conference with a four-set win over McDonogh.
The first set was something Parr was unaccustomed to seeing this season from her squad.
“Usually, they don’t have that many unforced errors,” she said. “They make all their serves and they control what they can control and that’s covering on all the tips and getting their serve-receive and getting our free balls up to the net so they can run their fast offense.”
Donahue heeded her words between sets.
“She was like, ‘Talk more. We gotta get this energy up. We’ve done this a million times so you know you can do it so just put two and two together,’” Donahue said. “I feel like second set we kind of clicked more as setter and hitter. We were communicating more.”
In addition to feeding her hitter, Sujeta wasn’t afraid to keep the Eagle defense off-balance with opposite-handed dumps.
“I practice left-handed, it’s just something I’ve been working on since club season and my coach was like, ‘Use that left hand.’ So I started using it,” said Sujeta, who also sang the National Anthem before the game.
Her coach has been impressed with more than just her singing ability in her first full season as starting setter.
“I’m really impressed with Renata because this is her first time playing in varsity,” Parr said. “We lost our setter last year who was a four-year varsity setter, so I’m super proud of her because she’s been stepping up to the plate and getting consistent feeding our outside hitter, Bridget, and also getting our back row attacks and throwing them off with those dumps.”
McDonogh coach Niki Epps felt the Eagles lost momentum because of difficulty handling the Sailors’ serves which included 16 aces.
“I feel like serve-receive was pretty crucial for us. That’s usually one of our strengths. I feel like we just need to talk more, we need to communicate,” Epps said.
The late comeback was something she has seen before but she would prefer a faster start.
“We did at one point and it really worked in our favor, but I think what happens for us is we really, really need to build the momentum in the beginning of the set,” Epps said.
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