Pressure a non-factor as program standards keep Panthers level-headed
By SPENCER BATES
OLEAN — The Portville girls volleyball team is now over halfway through its regular season, and so far they have been virtually untouchable.
All but one of its victories have come via sweeps. The only instance of that not being the case was its season-opener against AAA Lancaster, which it won 3-2. The most recent team to fall victim to that might was Olean, which, to its credit, did not shy away from the fight.
On paper, it seems as though the Panthers cruised to three consecutive set victories by scores of 25-11, 25-14 and 25-10 as they moved to 9-0 on the season. However, in each of those sets, the Huskies found themselves able to hang with the reigning four-time Class C State Champions for at least a portion of time. It took substantial point-runs by the visitors to pull away in each set, and after a tough matchup against Falconer just two days ago, Portville coach Paul Mann had his concerns that their game against Olean could be a tricky one.
“I felt like this was a trap game,” Mann said. “We played so hard against Falconer on Monday, we expended so much energy, my team was flat and … it could have been a much different game tonight. However, with that being said, sometimes you got to win ugly. And tonight was an ugly win. We’ll always take any win that we can get, but we can’t play every team like this, because we will get knocked off, and we’ll get knocked off at the wrong time.”
Luckily for Mann, he noted his players have the ability to pick up on the times when they are not necessarily playing up to their standard and change the tides.
“My captains always step up and they say something inspiring,” Mann said. “Without their leadership out there on the floor, I don’t think we can do what we’re doing.”
Portville’s Ali Haynes (22) rises up for a kill against Olean. Haynes led the Panthers with 17 kills in their win over the Huskies. (Spencer Bates)
One of those captains is Ali Haynes, who led the Panthers with 17 kills, six digs, two blocks and an assist. The sheer size and strength of Haynes, according to Mann, is enough to put another team on edge. But what makes her even more of an all-around weapon is her level of intelligence on the floor.
“I don’t even know if I can do her justice,” Mann said. “It’s not just her ability on the floor, it’s her intellect, how she reads and comes at the game. I can’t say enough about her. … You may slow her down, but I don’t see anybody being able to completely stop her. She hits everywhere on the court. She hits from the back row, just as easily as she hits from the front row. I think it’s an intimidation factor. A lot of teams are like, ‘how are we going to stop Ali?’ So far, no one has figured that out yet, and hopefully nobody does.”
Alongside Haynes, Addie Walker had 27 assists, five kills and four digs, Leigha Stives finished with five digs, five aces and three blocks and Mia Rhinehart had 25 digs, four aces and three assists.
Olean coach Michelle Acierno, whose side has not had a bad year by any metric either, entering the game against Portville with just one tally in the loss column, gave her players their flowers after the match.
“We’ve really been persevering,” Acierno said. “We’ve been winning and today we came in, and I thought we played Portville better than we have in the past. I give so much credit to the girls, because they all had great attitudes. I thought they played amazing defensively and I think if we could have got our third ball down a little bit better, I think it would have shown in the score how close it really was.”
There were also some instances in which Olean’s communication dropped, which Acierno acknowledged led to more lopsided set scores.
“Communication is constant,” Acierno said. “ That gets us through the rough times, and (our players) know that. We just had a couple communication breakdowns, and really, until today, we haven’t had too many problems with that. It’s just a very fast-paced game, and that’s hard to adjust to sometimes.”
Olean’s Alyx Henzel (2) rises up for a kill against the Panthers. Henzel had six kills for the Huskies against the Panthers. (Spencer Bates)
Alyx Henzel led the Huskies with six kills on the night. Also coming up big were Ari Finch and Kaylin Kratts, who finished with 10 digs apiece.
The loss moves Olean to 5-2 on the season, but there is a big positive that Acierno admitted comes with playing teams the likes of Portville. According to her, having a team like the Panthers locally raises the standard for everyone in the area, including the coaches.
“(Former Portville coach) Kelly Unverdorben set a very high standard for volleyball in this area,” Acierno said. “I could mention everyone, but our league is just amazing, and it’s because we’ve had such consistent coaches. We’ve all been doing it for a while now, and I think that type of consistency, and us all working year-round with our teams, collectively, that’s great for the area. I love that I can say that we are in a great volleyball area now.”
Typically, winning comes with its pressures. But the metaphorical target has been on the backs of the Panthers for nearly half a decade now. They have been the team to beat for so long, as Mann noted, that pressure has just become the norm. The ability to handle that and continue to bring their best night-in, night-out is the standard.
“I know coaches seem to get a lot of credit, but the seven or eight athletes I got playing out there, they’re a championship-level group,” Mann said. “But that doesn’t just come (naturally). That comes with hard work, effort and dedication. … When you build that pedigree, it’s really hard to change it. And I don’t want to change it, it needs to stay the same. My seniors are filtering it down through my sophomores and my juniors, and they’ll hopefully filter down to the next group.”
Olean’s Haylie Bednarski (5) rises up for a kill against Portville. (Spencer Bates)
Up next for Portville is a match away from home against Fredonia set for Sept. 29 at 6:30 p.m.
As for Olean, its next game will be at home against Chautauqua Lake, also on Sept. 29 at 6:30 p.m.
