By Skip Weaver
Contributing writer
MONROE – Growth has been the main focus for a young, inexperienced Edgewood girls volleyball program this season.
The Cougars’ roster is made up of mostly sophomores – six of them to be exact – as well as four juniors and just two seniors.
But that growth shined on Tuesday night albeit in a loss at Southwestern Buckeye League rival Monroe. Edgewood lost in three straight to the Hornets earlier this season, but took their host all the way to five games before suffering the loss.
The Cougars took charge to start by winning the first game 25-16. They dropped the second game 24-26, but then took the match lead by winning the third game 25-21. They had the lead in the fourth game as well before Monroe broke a 20-20 tie and rallied to a 25-23 win forcing a winner-take-all fifth game. Again, Edgewood took control early jumping out to a 3-0 lead in that deciding game, but the Hornets gained the momentum and finished off the comeback win 15-10.
“I think that both teams played very well,” Edgewood coach Lori Burton said. “We are a very young and very inexperienced team. We do not have very many people that play club, so for them to step up and play like they did I’m very, very proud of them.
“When we played (Monroe) earlier in the season they beat us in three, so we are definitely improving,” she continued. “I thought there were some definite moments where we had the momentum, but we are mostly sophomores and I just see it as our inexperience. We’ll get it.”
Sophomore Molly Vogel led the attack with 21 kills. She also had 15 digs and three blocks. Also with double-digit kills were senior Bayleigh Vaughn and sophomore Ryane Smith each with 10 kills. Smith also contributed three service aces, four digs and six blocks, while Vaughn added four digs and two blocks for the Cougars. Sophomore Kallie Ruppert was the assists leader with 30. She also had 10 digs and three blocks, and junior Evie Short led the defense with 23 digs. She also had two service aces.
“We’ve been in this position a lot this season,” Vogel said. “We’ve come out and lost a couple times, but I just really think it’s good that we didn’t give up. We kept fighting the whole five sets.
“It’s stressful at times out there, but I know my team has got my back and I’ve got theirs,” she added.
Edgewood is 5-10 overall this season and 1-5 in the SWBL Southwestern Division. In those 10 losses, the Cougars have been swept in three games five times. The other five losses were in four games twice and in five games three times. Their five wins have come in three-game sweeps twice, four games twice and once in a five-game match.
“These girls are building confidence with every game they play,” Burton said. “They don’t ever quit. They fight until the end and they give me everything they have when they’re out there.”
Blocking is just one area Burton said she has seen improvement as the season has gone on.
“We’ve been working really hard on blocking, and if you saw tonight, we had quite a few really nice blocks,” she said. “Our number 13 (Ryane Smith) in the middle this is her first year playing volleyball, so for her to have that attack is amazing. We are celebrating the small things like that instead of worrying about what the score looks like this year.”
Smith leads the team with 31 blocks this season. Vogel is the leader in kills with 189. As a freshman last year, Vogel totaled 108 kills on the season.
“We’ve improved so much since the start of the season,” Vogel said. “At the beginning of the year, some of our players didn’t even know how to rotate properly, and now we’re playing five sets against Monroe and Talawanda and we’re coming really close to beating those teams. I think that means a lot because it proves that we’re willing to work and to improve.”
Edgewood gets back on the court this week with a home match Thursday against Bellbrook, which is undefeated in the league at 7-0 and 15-1 overall for the season.
“If we do one thing better than we did the day before, then I’m happy with that,” Burton said.
Other members of the team are senior Lizzy Kolling, juniors Rylee Dawes, Kaylee Hughes and Reagan Jarvis, and sophomores Lacy Curry, Nevaeh Lewis and Pricilla Jones.
