Frazier wins first showdown with Mapletown
PERRYOPOLIS — Frazier had its way with visiting Mapletown early on in their Section 2-A girls volleyball showdown on Sept. 27.
The Lady Maples finally came alive in the third set but the Lady Commodores held on for a 3-1 victory in a battle between unbeaten teams for first place at Henry DiVirgilio Fieldhouse.
Frazier won by scores of 25-18, 25-14, 22-25 and 25-22.
“I kept telling my girls they’re going to wake up,” Lady Commodores coach Mandy Hartman said. “And you see, they did.”
It was too little too late, however, for Mapletown, which won the section championship a year ago.
Jensyn Hartman led the way with 29 kills for the Lady Commodores (7-0, 8-0) and Braylin Salisbury contributed nine kills, 20 service points and two blocks. Frazier also got 29 assists from Gracen Hartman, who played through an injury.
“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” coach Hartman said. “That was a tremendous team effort. We’re playing with some injuries right now and the girls really rallied around each other.
“I love our aggressiveness. Everything that we’ve been trying to accomplish, with all of our hitters involved and our defense really taking pride in what they do, they did tonight.”
The Lady Maples’ early problems were of their own doing, according to coach Christy Menear.
“We made way too many unforced errors in the first set and the second set,” Menear said. “We had to reduce those to allow us to be competitive and thatĢƵ what happened in that third and fourth set.”
Mapletown (6-1, 7-1) rose up and took a close third set and the two battled back and forth in the fourth set.
With the score tied 22-22 after a kill by the Lady Maples’ Ella Menear, Grace Vaughn came through with consecutive kills to help the Lady Commodores close out the match.
“Had we not had all those early mistakes we probably would’ve been able to get to a fifth set,” coach Menear said. “I liked our chances if we could’ve won that fourth game.”
Hartman was glad her team was able to avoid prolonging the match.
“I think they understood the importance of that fourth set,” Hartman said. “Any time you win the first two and then lose the next two, thatĢƵ a hard thing to overcome because at that point you’ve lost all the momentum. I didn’t want that to be the case. I told them we have to win it in this set.
“We were fighting some injuries tonight and I knew we could only go so much longer. My kids are banged up.”
Frazier got contributions across the board, including 19 digs from Molly Yauch, 14 service points from Madison Stefancik, five kills from freshman Madelyn Salisbury and two blocks from freshman Addison Schultz.
“Molly is so stable back there for us,” Hartman said. “You take it for granted what she does a lot of the times, we’re just so used to it. But sheĢƵ where our offense starts. SheĢƵ only a junior and sheĢƵ having a great, great year.”
Hartman commended her teamĢƵ blocking, also.
“Our blockers, even with our freshmen, they’re doing an outstanding job,” Hartman said. “They love to block and thatĢƵ what I love about them. They take a lot of pride in it. They know thatĢƵ their job and they’re doing it well.”
Ella Menear, the coachĢƵ daughter, paced Mapletown with 15 kills and 15 digs and Krista Wilson followed with 15 kills and 12 digs.
“Ella hit the ball well tonight,” coach Menear said. “We didn’t serve the ball as well as we normally do. We’re normally a 91-percent serving team and we were well below that tonight.
“Defensively, once we adjusted we were able to defend the ball and dig some on 33ĢƵ (Jensyn Hartman) shots.”
Bailey Rafferty added 30 assists and 15 digs for the Lady Maples who also got 16 digs from Riley Pekar.
Frazier now sits alone stop the standings with Mapletown second and Carmichaels (4-2) third.
“I told them yesterday this is a huge match,” Hartman said. “We can’t afford to make the silly errors that we’ve been making because this is a great team.
“I’m sure itĢƵ going to be just as heated when we go there at the end of the season.”
Both teams continue section play Thursday with the Lady Commodores at West Greene and the Lady Maples hosting the Lady Mikes.
“We love to play competitive, fundamental, respectful teams,” Menear said. “We know we have them again at our place later. But right now we have Carmichaels on Thursday. We’re back in the gym, we’re going to work on reducing our mistakes in order to beat them.”
The section race isn’t over yet for the defending champs, Menear pointed out.
“ThereĢƵ still a whole lot of volleyball to be played for that to be determined,” Menear said.







