Cassadaga Valley’s Payton Meder rises above the net for a spike against Clymer during Monday’s CCAA Division 4 girls volleyball match in Clymer.
OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms
CLYMER — Not many teams have been able to take a set from the Clymer volleyball team in Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 4 action this season and that put the Pirates in position to claim the league title outright Monday night.
When Clymer traveled to Cassadaga Valley earlier in the season, it did drop a set, but there were no roadbumps en route to a sweep for the league title 25-13, 25-8, 25-8. With the victory Clymer remained undefeated in the league and won the division with two more games left to play.
“This season has been going well,” Clymer head coach Velvet Persons stated. “I have a mixture of girls so they have had to learn to work together. But they’re one big family so it has been working great for us.”
Cassadaga Valley (6-8, 5-3) put up a fight in the first set, but still struggled to string together consecutive points and seemed to come up on the wrong side of every long rally. As the set wore on the Pirates (10-3, 8-0) seemed to get better and better, wrapping things up with consecutive 4-point runs before finishing 25-13.
Then, in the second set the Pirates ran away with the match as Janelle Burchanowski stepped up to the service line for the first eight points and even triggered a Cassadaga Valley timeout before the Cougars could get on the scoreboard.
Cougars’ Jazmin Debo passes to a teammate.
OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms
Burchanowski finished the evening with eight aces, Lily Johnson scored two and Elli Bodamer had one in a strong night from the service line.
“We practice serves all the time,” Persons stated. “That’s one thing I said they have 100% control over is their serves. So that is one thing we practice hard on is making sure serves are in.”
Cassadaga Valley’s struggles got worse as the night went on, scoring consecutive points twice in the second set and then the only string of points were the opening two in the third set by the Cougars.
The Cassadaga Valley effort was led by Hailey Anderson with three kills, three digs and an assist, Emiley Anderson scored three kills, two assists and a dig and Payton Meder had four kills.
Clymer fell back 2-0 to start the third set, but a big 7-point run began to put the match out of reach. The Pirates received offense from everywhere, but Johnson was a force in the middle with a match-high 10 kills to go along with her four digs and two aces.
“We are touch and go at the net honestly,” Persons added. “Some nights we’re spot on and other nights we look a little shaky, so tonight was just one of those nights we were spot on.”
Bodamer added another five kills and 12 digs, Burchanowski had three kills, six digs and 11 assists and Maiya Dunnewold dealt out five assists.
Clymer finished strong with Burchanowski at the service line on a 6-point run to take the final set 25-8 and claim the division title outright.