WAYNESBORO, Pa. – The Waynesboro Maidens varsity volleyball team received an all-around, team effort on Tuesday to defeat the Gettysburg Warriors in three sets inside the Waynesboro Area Senior High School gymnasium.
Waynesboro won the Mid-Penn Colonial Division match 25-20, 25-21 and 25-19, avenging a five-set loss to Gettysburg on Sept. 10.
The Maidens overcame a lot of errors in the process of winning their ninth match of the year, something head coach Emily Nystrom explained afterwards.
“That’s what I said to the girls between the second and third sets. I said, ‘We’re making this game more difficult than what it needs to be because of our errors. We made a number of serving errors. We were trying to place the ball more times than we should have and trying to go up with too much power when if we would have just rolled it over or tipped it. We put ourselves behind the eight ball.”
Waynesboro made 16 attempted kill errors, 21 dig errors and 20 serve receive errors and still won in three sets.
Maddie Nystrom served up two aces to start the match. Neither team held serve for long until Kara Eskridge took over with her team leading 16-12. Eskridge settled in behind the serving line as the Maidens opened up a 20-12 lead thanks to an efficient combination of digs, sets and kills. Chloe Shacreaw recorded two kills, while Eskridge served for an ace and Nystrom received the set from Eskridge for another point.
The Warriors got to within 23-20 before Waynesboro closed out the set with Reed on serve and Sarah Aldrich recording the clinching point.
The Maidens started the second set behind the proverbial eight ball. Gettysburg asserted itself in all phases and took a 9-5 lead. But that changed when Eskridge took over at the service line. She helped get Waynesboro a 10-9 lead, and after the Warriors tied it at 10, Chloe Shacreaw served for four consecutive points to give the home team a 15-10 lead.
It was back and forth the rest of the set, but the Maidens persevered to win by four points and put the pressure on Gettysburg.
Waynesboro took a 5-0 lead behind the serving of Nystrom. It was 9-3 in favor of the Maidens, but the Warriors chipped away and eventually tied things up at 13.
After a side out, Chloe Shacreaw served for five straight points to give Waynesboro a little breathing room at 19-13. It didn’t last long, and Gettysburg reduced the deficit to 21-19. Following another side out, Reed served up an ace. A hitting error and an Eskridge kill ended the match.
Eskridge finished the match with 26 set assists. Freshman libero Lila Shacreaw kept the ball in play consistently. She had 15 digs in the victory. Nystrom led the team with 16 digs. Aldrich had 17 kill points and Nystrom contributed seven kills for points.
Indeed, Waynesboro has come a long way since starting the season 3-5, including its loss to Gettysburg. Three of the team’s seven starters (Nystrom, Chloe Shacreaw and Aldrich) started last season.
“I start one senior, two juniors, three sophomores and a freshman,” said Nystrom.
“I think it was early on and being a young team and getting to mesh with each other and things like that. We now have more than half the season under our belts, and I think that we are starting to get comfortable with each other and know what each other’s jobs are and we can rely more on everybody.”
Waynesboro is back on the court on Thursday at Northern York in a league match.
Photos by Toya McCleary:
