Norwalk dominates in sweep over Tigers

HURON — Not much was working in Norwalk's favor. With a couple minutes left in warmups, the NHS volleyball team was told it had to switch jerseys prior to Thursday's non-league match at Huron. The outline on the away uniforms were deemed illegal by the officials. And, Norwalk was without head coach Sarah Kipp, who is in Washington this weekend for a family wedding. But when the match started between the two longtime traditional powers, the visitors didn't show any signs of trouble. Norwalk cruised to a 25-9 win in the first set, held off a late Huron rally for a 25-22 win in set 2 — then finished the sweep with a late serving run in the third set, 25-17. Norwalk improved to 4-0 with the impressive early-season win. "We had to switch jerseys or we would have lost a point (at the start), and I was really proud of the girls for how they handled it," acting head coach Rachel Schlotterer said."That could have really thrown a wrench in things and flustered them, and instead they handled that the opposite. "Our senior leaders were the calm in the chaos a little bit. Going in, we knew we had to get the momentum from the start. We knew they'd have a big crowd and a great atmosphere, and we had worked (Wednesday) on not letting teams go on runs more than one or two — so that was our goal tonight. I was proud of them for that." After the dominant win in the first set, Norwalk appeared well on its way with an 18-10 lead in set 2. Instead, the Tigers worked their way back with some well-placed hitting and blocking at the net. Jada Foster came up with a key block, then Azure Waldock put down a big kill that just stayed in bounds in the back left corner to bring the Tigers within 19-16. Huron (0-1) stayed with that momentum, and a pair of kills from Cami Adams and Maggie Orzech tied the match at 22. But Norwalk grabbed the momentum back immediately. Freshman Maddie Gamble answered with a kill at the front of the net, then senior standout Lucy Schlotterer went back to the service line and came through with an ace. A net error against the Tigers then gave Norwalk the 25-22 win, and a commanding 2-0 lead in the match. "That was huge," Rachel Schlotterer said. "We kind of let up a little bit, and coming out of a timeout we knew we had to put our foot on the gas and find the floor. We needed our defense to talk a bit more to our hitters about what was open, and we did it." The third set was shaping up to be another tight one. Foster put down a kill that pulled Huron within 13-12. The Tigers still trailed just 16-15, but Norwalk closed the door. Leading 18-15, junior Sydney Moehlman had a well-placed kill that split a pair of Huron defenders at the net. After an error on Huron made it 21-16, Lucy Schlotterer landed a thunderous kill — and teammate Sawyer Wineman followed with one of her five aces to put Norwalk up 23-16. A lob by Lucy Schlotterer then found the floor at the front left of the net, and sophomore middle Bella Hernandez put the match away with a kill. "(Huron coach) Don Wood always finds a way," Rachel Schlotterer said. "He has a great program and knows what he's doing, and we didn't want to take anything for granted. We did not want to let up. We know if you give Huron an inch they take a mile." Lucy Schlotterer finished with 20 kills, 10 digs and served five aces in the three sets for Norwalk. Gamble and Moehlman each had six kills, while Mac Wineman had 21 digs and Emily Tyler finished with 32 assists. Norwalk is off for seven days before a home SBC Lake match against Bellevue. Rachel Schlotterer will be glad to slide back to the assistant chair for Kipp. "I was a little nervous, because those are big shoes to fill for a night," she said. "But she's taught me so much over the years, so I felt confident and channeled my inner Sarah sometimes and tried to say what I think she'd say in those situations. "I hope we made her proud and we'll be excited for her to get back." For Huron, Waldock and Orzech each had seven kills, while Adams added six. Orzech and Adams were also 100 percent servers for the Tigers, who also got 13 assists from Allison Witherow and eight from Reece Hotz. Also for Huron, Foster had five kills and three blocks, and Adelyn Van Sickle added 12 digs. "They are all tough first matches, but I was disappointed with how we started," Wood said. "Norwalk is an excellent team, but we should have been much more competitive. I was not happy with our level of competitiveness in the first set."