Wednesday Roundup: Lady Lions score 9th straight-set win in a row, roll past C-R with Senior Night blank; Lady Rebels secure 1st winning season under Wight in home triumph

Written By Chris Brooks

WELLSVILLE — Senior Night. The night to celebrate outgoing student-athletes who will be departing their beloved schools after this year. It’s also a night that most coaches fear. For Marley Adams, Jaelyn Knapp, Brooklyn Stisser, Kaylee Coleman and Natalie Zeiger, Wednesday night was their moment under the stars for the Lady Lions of Wellsville.

After honoring their five massive pieces to what has been an overwhelming success to second-year head coach Shannon Steiner’s puzzle, it was game on again for Wellsville, who looked to be the first team to reach the 10-win plateau with visiting Cuba-Rushford coming into town to wrap up their season series.

Since the beginning of the season when they edged past Bolivar-Richburg in a thrilling five-set match back at the beginning of September, the Lady Lions have developed and recorded a statistic that is impressive in its own right — they have been triumphant in eight consecutive matches that have resulted in straight-set decisions against their opposition.

After their Senior Night battle, they made it nine.

The Lady Lions would have to overcome a quick Cuba-Rushford start in the first set to make it to the end, falling behind by as much as four points in the early stages, but quickly rebounded to pull ahead of the Lady Rebels at the midway point and toward victory to set up what was yet another straight-set victory on the night, taking the last two sets in dominating fashion to roll toward a 25-19, 25-10, 25-12 win.

The first set would open up with a 6-2 lead in favor of Cuba-Rushford right away, as the Lady Rebels (3-7) offense found the openings on the floor to fuel up some big points to get the early jump on the Lady Lions.

But that would soon be erased after a few long back-and-forth rallies between the two teams, the majority of which went in Wellsville’s direction, allowing them to jumpstart a rally from behind to pull out ahead led by the service of Jaelyn Knapp, collecting back-to-back aces to take what was an 11-11 tie at one point, and grow it with six unanswered.

The Lady Rebels responded with back-to-back aces of their own from Kendall Tompkins, but then a response for the response came from Brooklyn Stisser with two straight aces of her own to regain traction on the comeback victory in the opening set.

In the second set, the momentum gained from the rally was used at full force. Wellsville (10-0) would start the new session with five straight points led by even more phenomenal service from Knapp at the line, beginning with a 10-3 jump on the Lady Rebels. It would eventually lead to multiple strands of scoreless runs being recorded by the hosts in black, with the first coming courtesy of an 8-0 run after leading 6-3 over their opposition.

It would lead to a push toward the edge by the Lady Lions in their 25-10 win to go up by a pair.

In the third set, more of the same, as the Lady Lions continued to rule the evening with one final set victory in dominating fashion to record their 10th match victory in a row, their ninth consecutive win by straight sets.

Knapp led the Lady Lions from the line with a team-high eight aces to pair with six digs and four kills. On the attack, Brooklyn Stisser led the way with five kills, four digs and two more aces. The defense was paced by Marley Adams, who recorded a team-leading seven digs to go with three kills and two aces, while Kaylee Coleman had five digs of her own to add in along with two more kills.

Emma Dunaway chipped in three kills and two digs of her own, while setter Maddy Parks dished out 12 assists along with three more digs and two more kills to wrap up another superb effort by Wellsville.

On the other side of the net, the Lady Rebels saw Brianna Green take charge of the offense, conducting the frontline with a game-high nine kills to pair with four digs on defense. Jordyn Radomski added seven digs on defense in addition to three more kills and one ace, while the team’s setter Quincy Tyler handed out 14 assists to go with two more digs.

Both teams are back on the floor Friday night in a pair of 7:30 p.m. first serves, as the Lady Lions will go for 11 straight with a visit to Genesee Valley/Belfast in store, while Cuba-Rushford heads back home to the Wighthouse in a rebound attempt with the Fillmore Lady Eagles in town for a visit.

Bolivar-Richburg 3, Houghton Academy 1

HOUGHTON — Along with the Lady Lions, the Lady Wolverines of Bolivar-Richburg continue to ignite a fire on the volleyball court that refuses to be extinguished.

Wednesday night’s road trip to Houghton Academy was another drop of fuel to keep the fire burning, as the Lady Wolverines went past the host Lady Panthers with a four-set victory by a 25-20, 25-17, 21-25, 25-18 count.

The Lady Wolverines (9-3) were led by Jianna Nix, who continues to have a magnificent season on the attack by recording a game-high 17 kills, pairing them with five aces and three blocks at the net. Helping further the cause was Kori Thomas, who added 11 kills of her own and three blocks. Haley Mascho (four aces) dug down low to record a whopping 20 digs, while setter Kaitlyn Graves dished out 21 assists.

Stats for the Lady Panthers of Houghton Academy (7-4) were not provided upon publication. The Lady Panthers are back in action on the road Friday night with a 6:30 p.m. visit to Hinsdale.

Bolivar-Richburg will go for their 10th win of the season next week, as they return home to host the Fillmore Lady Eagles in a 7:30 p.m. first serve, next Wednesday evening.

BOYS SOCCER

Wellsville 1, Cuba-Rushford 0

CUBA — It has been since September 22 since the Lions last found the win column, when they won a 1-0 contest over the road at Jasper-Troupsburg.

Since then, an uphill battle for Wellsville took place. But some relief came in their final road regular season game on Wednesday, as they scored the contest’s lone goal against host Cuba-Rushford to pick up the 1-0 shutout, ending their five-game slide.

Just over 10 minutes into the second half, after a scoreless battle in the first 40 minutes of play, Wellsville (5-9-1) found an opening they were able to create permanently with the help from Cooper Brockway, who found the back of the net to earn the only lead there was to gain off a far post shot provided by a pass from Ethan Bailey to complete the play.

The shot was one of 18 in all the Lions plummeted on the Cuba-Rushford (6-8-1) goal, outshooting the Rebels by an 18-5 count. In goal, Logan Dunbar tallied the win by making all five stops for the blank.

On the opposite end, Jarrett Campbell put a stop to 17 shots for the hosts in blue, who ends their regular season with a 6-8-1 record to await Sectional seeding with this weekend.

Wellsville will conclude their regular season back home tonight with a 7 p.m. first kick against the blazing Fillmore Eagles.

GIRLS SOCCER

Cuba-Rushford 1, Genesee Valley/Belfast 0

CUBA — You could say that the 2021 season for the Lady Rebels of Cuba-Rushford have been full of ups and downs. But one thing is for certain: it has been a ride that head coach Aaron Wight and his squad have not been through yet. After scoring just a single win a season ago, Cuba-Rushford multiplied that eight times in what has been a major success on the grass.

Wight says that despite graduating a myriad of Seniors at the end of the year, it has been one of those cases where his team is beginning to come together.

“The girls all work really hard,” he said. “We’re going to be graduating 10 Seniors at the end of the year, and they are all pieces of our puzzle that we will miss dearly, but at the same time, we are going to have a great core coming back. It does seem like that we’ve had a big turnaround from last year. When I look back, we were competitive in so many of those games, and we were very young. It felt like we were right there in all of those games, and this year, it seems like we’re starting to turn the corner. It’s all starting to come together.”

A chance to cement that notion came on Wednesday, when the Lady Rebels began their back-to-back homestand to conclude their regular season. First up was Genesee Valley/Belfast., and with it came a possibility to earn just one more win to secure a first-time success story within the Wight regime.

Macie Demick made sure it would happen for the Lady Rebels.

Despite a massive day from both offenses in a combined 32-shot effort between the clubs, Demick’s shot was the only one that found the back of the Genesee Valley/Belfast netting, scoring just over three minutes into the game to break the ice with a lead that Cuba-Rushford was able to hang onto for the next 75 minutes in what was a 1-0 blank to put a bow on a winning season for the first time in Wight’s tenure as coach.

“This was a tough game. There were lots of good chances that came from both teams,” Wight said. “Tara (Duvall) came out with some really big stops to help us out when we really needed it tonight. GV/Belfast is a big, athletic and physical team, and we really struggled to keep the ball against them. But, we were able to do just enough to get by with the win.”

Demick’s goal came at the 36:20 mark of the opening half to get the Lady Rebels (9-6) on the board first, securing the game-long advantage for the remainder of the game with assistance from the middle by Christy Childs and her assist to finish up the only scoring play of the evening.

Cuba-Rushford went on to outshoot Genesee Valley/Belfast by an 18-14 total count, with Tara Duvall making nine saves in net to record the shutout. On the other side, Ashley Burrows also had nine saves for the visitors, who officially ended their regular season and will now await a seed for the Class D1 Sectional Tournament with a record of 7-8.

The Lady Rebels will put an end to their regular season on Friday back on their home field, as they will take aim at a potential 10-win season with incoming Friendship/Scio in for a 5 p.m. visit.

Fillmore 5, Bolivar-Richburg 0

FILLMORE — The unbeaten Lady Eagles of Fillmore are continuing the process of coming off what was their toughest test of the season, which resulted in what was their biggest win of the season at the same time to remain unbeaten over one of Class C’s powers in Gananda.

Back home on Wednesday, the Lady Eagles would continue their reign of undefeated fury with the Lady Wolverines of Bolivar-Richburg in town for a visit, as they set the tone with a 4-0 halftime lead and never looked back, coasting toward a 5-0 shutout.

“B-R is playing with a depleted roster right now, and despite that, they battled with us all game long,” said Lady Eagles coach Jon Beardsley. “We saved some legs tonight, and we are going to do what we can to get healthy, and prepared for Sectionals. In the end, we have 21 active girls right now and each one of them can step on the field, and contribute. They all deserved credit for our team’s success.”

Five different Lady Eagles (15-0) all had a hand in supplying the offense with the firepower they needed to come away victorious. Zoe Beardsley started it all off just three minutes after the opening kick, garnering the 1-0 lead on Bolivar-Richburg after burying a feed that was dished along by Grace Russell, one of two assists she had in the contest.

Four minutes later, that newly acquired lead grew to a pair with Russell herself getting on the board with a goal of her own off a pass from Hope Russell on the side. Hope would score later on in the half, beginning another set of back-to-back goals in a quick span of time to continue extending the lead, burying a Beardsley pass to complete the play.

Right at the midway mark, Cece Schmidt tallied a goal of her own to close out the first half scoring with Grace Russell’s final assist coming into play, earning a 4-0 lead at the break for the team to control.

It would remain the same score on the board all the way down to the waning minutes of the evening, when Torann Wolfer added one last marker herself with five minutes left off a Rachel Hatch pass to wrap up a 15-shot offensive effort.

Altogether, the Lady Eagles outshot the Lady Wolverines (8-7) by a 15-4 total count, with Preslee Miller and Alex Thur combining to make all four stops. On the other side, Breanna Militello made 10 saves for Bolivar-Richburg, who returns home to close out their regular season with a 6 p.m. first kick against Bishop Kearney on Friday.

The Lady Eagles will go for a perfect regular season for a third straight year over the road tonight, when they visit the Wellsville Lady Lions in a 5 p.m. contest.

Chris Brooks
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