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Cavaliers serve up volleyball victory over Tiopsa Zina

Aberdeen Roncalli’s Ava Hanson, top, reaches to hit the ball as Tiospa Zina’s Talia Robertson, bottom, during Thursday night’s match at the Roncalli High School gym. Photo by John Davis taken 9/5/2024

A total of 20 aces at the service line led to a three-set victory for the Aberdeen Roncalli Cavaliers Thursday night.

Roncalli handled Tiospa Zina 25-12, 25-14, 25-15 in a non-conference match that was led by an aggressive offensive attack at Roncalli Gym.

“We had to be aggressive in all aspects,” said Cavalier head coach Leesa Ware. “We had to be aggressive at the service line, we had to be aggressive attacking.”

The aggressiveness helped the Cavaliers behind the service line going 66 for 71 producing 20 aces. Ava Hanson led the Cavaliers with seven aces, bouncing back after missing her first serve of the contest.

“I missed my first serve of the game, and I think I missed another one,” Hanson said. “When you get back to the service line you just got to think over and in, and once you get comfortable serving it well, you just got to get more intensity off of that and that’s exactly what I did.”

Her intensity at the line helped her get four aces on a run in the third set where she served nine straight times increasing the Cavalier lead from 4-3 to 12-3. Hanson was also aggressive at the pounding down eight kills on the night.

“I love it when I get to the front row,” Hanson said. “Hitting is where I love to be. I love getting up there and getting a good kill.”

Tiospa Zina’s Faith Four Stars, left, hits the ball as Aberdeen Roncalli’s Maddie Huber, center and Rylee Voeller, right, defend the net during Thursday night’s match at the Roncalli High School gym. Photo by John Davis taken 9/5/2024

Although aggressiveness was the name of the game for the Cavaliers, they were too aggressive at times with 21 attacking errors, 10 of those coming in one set.

“Obviously attacking we were trying to be aggressive, it just didn’t happen the way that we wanted it to, and we just had way too many attacking errors,” said Ware. “We had 10 attack errors just in one set.”

The players are aware of the consequences that come with service errors and attacking errors that may hurt them in future contests, but for the time being, running will do.

“They looked at me and said, ‘So we’re going to be running tomorrow, not for serving but attacking errors,’” said Ware. “Bingo.”

The players know what practice will be like this afternoon.

“Once we missed our serves, we knew we were going to be running on the line,” Hanson said. “But hey, we deserve it, like we don’t deserve to keep losing points from our errors. So, if we gotta run, we gotta run.”

Hanson wasn’t the only player to stand out from the service line. McKenna O’Keefe dominated the second set closing it out on 10 straight serves, with back-to-back aces for the last two points.

Aberdeen Roncalli’s McKenna O’Keefe serves the ball during Thursday night’s match against Tiospa Zina at the Roncalli High School gym. Photo by John Davis taken 9/5/2024

“It was really nice, you know. After that timeout, I told them the score should not be this close,” Ware said. “We need to do something and eliminate some of our unforced errors… and they did just that.”

The Cavaliers will look to grab another win next week when they host Florence-Henry on Tuesday.

Serving: Aberdeen Roncalli 66-71 20 aces (Ava Hanson 17-19 7 aces, Morgan Helms 12-13 6 aces).

Hitting: Aberdeen Roncalli 84-105 23 kills (Hanson 16-21 8 kills, Rylee Voeller 20-24 5 kills).

Setting: Aberdeen Roncalli 91-91 22 assists (Maddie Huber 44-44 12 assists, Ava Danielson 28-28 7 assists)

Digs: Aberdeen Roncalli 50 (Voeller 10, McKenna O’Keefe 10).

Blocks: Aberdeen Roncalli 1 solo (Voeller 1 solo).

Records: Tiospa Zina 0-3; Aberdeen Roncalli 2-2.

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