Mayfield remains perfect with win over Amsterdam
By BILL CAIN, The Leader-HeraldArticle Photos
AMSTERDAM - Mayfield used Monday's match as a non-league opportunity to prepare for sectionals, while Amsterdam used it to get a bad day out of the way without conference consequences.
After Mayfield won the match 3-0, Amsterdam coach Chris Sherlock said it was as if someone had replaced her players with others who were less interested in playing.
"Even personality-wise, those were not my girls," Sherlock said. "They had nothing to say in the huddles. Not one person spoke. Nothing. They just weren't here today and I haven't seen that before. Normally, they are the most positive group of kids I've coached in a long time."
Mayfield won 25-14, 25-18, 25-22. After an Amsterdam hit sailed wide to start the match, Rebekah Haschytz took the serve for four points to give her Lady Panthers a 5-0 start.
The Lady Panthers maintained a four- to six-point lead for most of the game before opening it up near the end on the service of Alyssa Wells. Cassi Brancato finished the game when her serve was received with a stiff bump back over the net and wide.
The second game was close until a Christie Showers kill, set up by Brancato, gave the serve back to Wells for a five-point run that resulted in a 10-5 Mayfield lead.
Amsterdam soon recovered with a five-point service run by Alexis Theobald, but Kacie Edwards rattled off another five points later in the game to lead 23-16. Dianna Hime finished the game with a kill for the Lady Panthers.
"Our girls hung in there and played solid," Mayfield coach Eileen Rovito said. "It was an all-around game. The young girls are stepping up and doing the job and it's a lot of fun."
Wells had 10 service points and Kate Costello had seven. Kelsey Henry had 13 assists, while Brancato had eight assists and a block.
Edwards finished with seven kills and seven service points, while Showers added five kills and a block.
Haschytz finished with seven kills and seven service points. She said the Mayfield hitters were able to use strong swings to throw Amsterdam off its game, even if those strong swings sometimes resulted in long or wide hits as the Lady Panthers went hunting for the edges of the court.
"We were definitely trying to hit harder," Haschytz said. "Sometimes, though, you turn too much or you lose it. We kept hitting hard. They got most of them up, but sometimes we found their holes."
Theobald finished with six kills for Amsterdam, while Brandie Kreisel had five kills and six assists. Paige Archinal had three kills and six assists.
Sherlock said the Lady Rams had a tough five-game loss Friday to Mohonasen, but she didn't believe that had carried over to Monday.
Although the Lady Rams were swept, they were never too far out of any game. Despite a lack of energy at times, Amsterdam was always within striking distance.
"We kind of kept hanging around, as awful as we played," Sherlock said. "I said that to them. I said, 'You girls are playing the worst game you've ever played and you're still in the game, so go out and show them your game.'"
Late in the third game, the Lady Rams stepped things up. They trailed 24-16 after Kreisel hit the ball into the net. Mayfield's Costello was on a four-point run which included an ace that barely cleared the net on the left side of the court and was too hard to handle.
Then Kreisel set up Theobald for a kill, which brought the serve to Theobald for five more points before Haschytz finished the match with a kill to the right sideline.
Haschytz said the Amsterdam surge showed more precisely the kind of volleyball the Lady Rams can play when they set their mind to it.
"They knew they were down two games and they had to push it to come back," Haschytz said. "We played a good game and they played a really good game. They got up and had their hearts in it."
The Lady Rams (4-7 overall) will play Wednesday in a non-league match with Johnstown, while Mayfield (10-0 overall) will host Scotia-Glenville in another non-leaguer Wednesday.
Rovito said she likes to schedule tough non-league matches to pit her team against unfamiliar opponents. She said she would have liked to have a home-and-home series with Amsterdam this season, since she believes the Lady Rams are a far better team than they showed Monday and would test her Lady Panthers.
"I think that's not the real Amsterdam team," Rovito said. "I've been watching them in the papers and even though they don't have all the wins, they're always in the games. I think they didn't really give us the fight they had hoped to give us."
