By SPENCER BATES
SALAMANCA — As the Allegany-Limestone girls volleyball team heads into the second half of its season, coach Tara Bottone knows there is little room for error.
In a tightly contested Class C, every point in every set carries more weight as the regular season races towards its inevitable conclusion.
That is why Bottone was caught a little off-guard by the slow start her team had against Salamanca. Ultimately, the Gators did go on to win the next three consecutive sets for a 3-1 match win, but each win counts towards playoff seeding, and Bottone wants to see her Gators as high in the standings as they can be.
“We’re in the second half of the season now, and every win counts, especially with those playoff brackets,” Bottone said. “In the C class, there are so many big, top-notch teams and some of them only have one loss or zero losses, so we have to win everything so that we’re a little bit stacked higher in the brackets. … But (our players) are very good when we get behind, they come back, and they do well together and I think that’s because they’ve been playing so much together that they know each other so well.”
The Warriors started the match on the right foot, leading early and, after Allegany-Limestone’s first timeout of the set, proceeded to surge ahead via a 9-4 run. The Gators brought the set within contention late, but Salamanca saw the win through. To which, coach Courtney Valent credited the younger players on her team for how they stepped up.
“We had a couple people who have been sick, so we had a little bit of a different rotation,” Valent said. “We were pretty young in that first set. It was a lot of the young kids, and they were talking, they were positive, they were motivated, they were moving, and they were serving while on the court. That was a big difference.”
Salamanca’s Ayla Newark (8) rises up for a kill. Newark led the Warriors with 12 kills. (Spencer Bates)
According to Bottone, there was a lot to forget from that first set. Her team’s typically potent offense was unable to conjure up anything with great consistency, and her defense did not have the energy it required.
“We missed a couple serves, and we only had five or six kills, that’s usually not us,” Bottone said. “We have one of the top hitters in Section 6 right now, we have a great offense and our serves are really good. It’s just the defense. We got to work on that and have a little bit more energy at times. The energy is at a five, when it needs to be a 10.”
It was after that first set that Bottone urged her team to pick it up on offense and to put the nerves aside.
“For our team, the offense is our strength,” Bottone said. “We got a lot more hits (after the first set), we got a lot more serves. For some reason, we started a little bit slow. Sometimes they just start a little bit shy, but once they get rolling and they get going, they get more aggressive, and they play well together.”
The message was taken to heart by the Gators as they responded with set wins of 25-6, 25-11 and 25-11. At the center of it all was Serena Frederick who took it upon herself to inject life into her team with 21 kills and four digs.
“(Serena’s) been a captain for a couple years, and she’s an all-around player,” Bottone said. “She plays in the back row, she dives for balls, (her teammates) look to her as a leader, and I think that when they see her do very well, that gets them going. She does have a lot of energy and aggression.”
Alongside her, Julia DeRose finished with 30 assists, Mia McCarthy had 11 digs and Makenzie Goldsmith tallied 10 kills.
As for Salamanca, it is another tally in the loss column, but the gutsy first-set performance is what Valent knows her team is capable of. Now, it is just a matter of her players remaining healthy and growing in confidence as the year goes on.
“It sounds like an excuse, but we’ve had a lot of illness going on, so I just feel like we haven’t really got into a groove,” Valent said. “We’ve had a lot of people missing practice and stuff. So I’m hoping from now through the end (of the season), everyone stays healthy and we can really practice together and put it all together.”
Ayla Newark led the Warriors with 12 kills. Behind her, Acelynn Jacobs tallied 15 digs and Liana Jimerson dished out 10 assists.
Allegany-Limestone returns home for its next match, against West Valley/Franklinville on Oct. 8 at 6:30 p.m.
As for Salamanca, it will hit the road to face Randolph for its next match, set for Oct. 8 at 6:30 p.m.
