In latest Wellsville-Hornell Fall installment, Lady Red Raiders volleyball survives 5-set epic with Lady Lions to book 1st ever trip to Class B Finals; Hornell to face Aquinas for title Saturday

HORNELL — The Wellsville-Hornell rivalry has already showcased its truest power already this school year just over a week ago, when the Red Raiders outlasted the Lions with no time left to spare and no room for error in their Class B Semifinal battle on the pitch in Bath, to advance and eventually become Section V Champions for a second consecutive season.

In the two school’s latest installment of their historic saga, a trip to the Finals was on the line once again. On this particular occasion, indoors on the volleyball court.

Time to settle the score. Once and for all, this Fall.

As for that championship-winning fever, it’s something in the Maple City that continues to resonate inside the school halls, with not only the boys soccer program, but the girls soccer program adding more hardware to the trophy showcase along the way as well, with a Class B title of their own. And not long after the final curtain descends down on the autumnal equinox, the girls basketball program will take the court and defend their title this Winter.

But before that happens, the hope is that the winning fortune will keep siding with Hornell one more time, for a second-seeded Lady Red Raiders team that has never experienced such a feeling before in the school’s rich history of decoration.

With the No. 3 Lady Lions now glaring through the windshield in plain sight for the first time since their lone regular season meeting back in early September, head coach Kristi Gemmell says that the team’s preparation for their Semifinal clash with their archrival has been one of utmost importance.

Especially at this juncture of the campaign.

“We knew that tonight was going to be the absolute hardest,” she said. “We beat them in five sets in the very first game of the season, and we’ve certainly come a long way since then. We’ve lost only twice this year, but we have grown so much as a team since then. Preparing for this game the last two nights was huge, and it was going to be tough. We’ve had some up-and-down moments along the way, but I’m so proud of how far this team has come to prepare for this.”

The almighty fifth set. It is a final sequence of events that aids in illustrating a consistent escalation of tension, a strenuous test of your mental fortitude and it can reveal a true display of moxie. During Sectional season though, that’s amped up to a different level. It is a dimension of euphoria that becomes transmogrified into an animal like no other.

When these two rivals collide, it’s cosmogonic.

It was a particular checkpoint that both teams charted their course to back on September 6, when the Lady Red Raiders took care of business on their home court with a 3-2 edge on Wellsville. They have not met again since that day. That was until Wednesday, when both teams reconvened for a long-awaited spot in Section V’s grandest stage in Canandaigua this Saturday.

And as expected, it was another galvanizing five-set fight for their lives in front of a standing-room only audience.

The decibel level was through the roof and the quickness and speed of play, other-worldly. When someone says that the match could have gone either way, it seriously could have gone either way. Wellsville and Hornell assembled a five-set bonanza that featured a myriad of momentum swings across the board, with four of the five sets witnessing a final degree of separation that eclipsed no more than four points for the winning team.

The Lady Lions and Lady Red Raiders each scored two of such victories, with the latter of the bunch coming from Wellsville to force the encore-provoking set. Like the action has witnessed time and time again, the two foes went back and forth trading barbs from one side of the net to another early on.

But then, Hornell foresaw an opportunity to turn the tide. And went full stride with it.

The Seneca Street Zoo erupted.

They’re going to the Finals.

For the first time in school history, the Hornell Lady Red Raiders take one gigantic step forward towards completing the Fall Triple Crown, as they use three straight points on the floor to break an early fifth-set deadlock against the Lady Lions to take the lead — an advantage they built upon and never relinquished down the stretch, despite one final push from Wellsville along the way, as they put a ribbon on their trip to Saturday’s Class B Finals with a 23-25, 25-22, 25-21, 23-25, 15-9 victory.

“Volleyball is a super mental game. You can go down and stay down, or you can build off of it,” Gemmell said. “This year, these girls have noticed their errors and they know they have to reset and correct them on the fly. They did what they needed to do, and at the end of the day, they got the win to go to the Sectional Finals, which is something this program has never done before. What an amazing feeling this is.”

The Lady Red Raiders (16-2) had to claw their way back from behind against the Lady Lions across the five-set array of volleyball, with their first sequence arriving after a back-and-forth first set that saw a set-high seven-point lead for the hosts vanish down the stretch in favor of a 25-23 Wellsville win, capped off by an Averee Palmatier ace off the lip of the net, and then, a set-ending kill from Lindsay Stuck.

Hornell would bounce back and tie the match with Wellsville in the second set, using a hyperactive 6-1 lead to their advantage before the Lady Lions fought back again behind some stellar service from Teagan Burke to put their opposition on their heels, ultimately navigating towards a 14-all tie at the midway point of the frame. But the Lady Red Raiders wouldn’t let the set slip away however, as they surfed the right wave to net seven of the next nine points to swipe the lead away from the Lady Lions, securing the eventual 25-22 win.

The momentum kept riding with the Lady Red Raiders into a third set where no degree of separation was more than two points across the vast majority of action. Despite another back-and-forth teeter-totter battle with the Lady Lions again, the hosts in blue tilted the balance to push towards an advantage that reached as high as six points into the final serves, finishing off their command of the set to push Wellsville to the brink with the 25-21 victory.

The Lady Lions returned the favor by forcing the fifth set of action, despite a massive mid-set run by Hornell that saw the pressure increase all the way to the end, closing the gap to a single point on multiple occasions to try and turn the tide. But courtesy of back-to-back points by the No. 3 seeds, Hornell was denied a victorious exit from the court.

In between sets, Gemmell gathered her Lady Red Raiders around for a conversation. Her advice: Give it everything you have.

“This is it. I told them that they have to put every single thing they have left into this last set,” she said. “We either win it here or we go home. It was not easy by any means necessary. They took the advice we gave them to heart, and they went out and did what we asked of them. We have some great leaders on this team, including Lyla (Dyring). She is amazing, she’s calm, cool and collective, and she tells her teammates where to clean up and what else to do from the front to the back. She really helped bring them together.”

Hornell delivered big time.

After one final back-and-forth exchange, the Lady Red Raiders were able to break an early 6-6 tie with the Lady Lions with a mastodonic trio of points, creating enough separation to finish off another incredible tale in the rivalry’s chronicled history to navigate towards an inaugural berth into the Section V Championship round.

“It was quite heart-wrenching just because I know the abilities of these girls and know what they can do, game in and game out,” Lady Lions coach Shannon Steiner said. “However, tonight was a great game and they definitely played their hearts out. I could not have asked for a better competition. It’s definitely hard that we didn’t end on top, but that was a game that could have gone either way and was fun to watch, and be a part of.”

Pacing the Hornell attack was Jordyn Dyring, who was at the top of her game with a team-high 17 kills. Payton Bentley followed right behind her with 15 kills of her own to go with a quartet of blocks. On defense, libero Mia Nasca kept the ball off the floor tremendously with 25 digs, while setter Lyla Dyring handed out a whopping 41 assists to pair with 18 additional digs to help fortify the team’s defenses.

For Wellsville, Lindsay Stuck assembled a monstrous final outing of her career, as she led the way with a game-high 20 kills to pair with 10 digs and two aces. Natalie Adams paved the defensive efforts with 20 digs, coupling them with 10 kills. At the front of the net, Lexi Irish handed out 43 assists — a game-high, to go with 11 digs, two kills and one ace.

The Lady Lions will see their 2024 campaign reach its conclusion, as they put a wrap on the season with a record of 14-5 overall. The team will graduate eight seniors: Stuck, Adams, Irish, Makenna Dunbar, Averee Palmatier, Brooklyn Dahlgren, Alexa Stuck and Alexis Ireland — a group that has risen through the ranks since the beginning of Steiner’s journey with the Lady Lions.

To say that emotions were high at night’s end, would be an understatement.

“The hardest part for me is knowing that this was the last time I will coach eight amazing athletes that I have built very strong relationships with since I’ve been here. I will miss them more than they know,” Steiner said. “I can’t say enough good about them. They are not only phenomenal athletes, but just really good people. They have shown that not only on the court, but in the classroom and in the community itself. I’m so happy that I’ve been able to be a part of their lives.”

As for the Lady Red Raiders, they now look to unearth the final jewel to their Fall Triple Crown on Saturday at 10 a.m. in Canandaigua, as they take on the No. 4 Aquinas Lady Li’l Irish for all of Class B’s marbles. Aquinas topped No. 9 Cinderella Penn Yan in a straight-set sweep to clinch their spot in the title game, earlier in the evening.