Caroline Cordes may not stand 6-3, but the Waubonsie Valley junior middle hitter plays bigger with a high block.
She seemed to tower over Metea Valley.
Cordes had eight kills and six blocks and her presence gave the Mustangs fits in host Waubonsie’s 25-16, 23-25, 25-17 Upstate Eight Valley win Tuesday in Aurora.
“She touches about 9-9 or 9-10, she’s very athletic, and has a huge upside,” Waubonsie coach Kristen Didier said of Cordes. “We’re starting to get her more involved in the offense. I think we can get her more involved.”
Cordes’ impact was immediate, with four of her kills, a block and two aces as Waubonsie (15-7, 4-0) took Game 1 going away.
Cordes dropped in a tip over the block and rejected a Metea attempt to trigger a 7-0 run midway through. Two Metea hitting errors followed, Cordes and her teammates creating a psychological barrier at the net.
“We were trying our hardest to close the block so that they would not hit into it, and instead hit it out of bounds,” Cordes said.
Hit it out of bounds Metea did. The Mustangs (12-10, 3-2) committed 13 errors in Game 1, many of them long spikes. A combination of Waubonsie’s block and aggressive serving had Metea out of system and its hitters out of whack.
“They put up a good block, they served us off the court and kept us out of system,” Metea coach Dave MacDonald said. “We were swinging high, swinging out. We couldn’t put the ball away when we needed to.”
MacDonald’s Mustangs did gather themselves in a touch-and-go Game 2. Trailing 22-20 after an exquisite back-row tip by Waubonsie’s Becky Breuer, Metea outside Lexie Lobdell drove home two of her match-high 14 kills for the tie. Three ensuing Waubonsie errors forced the winner-take-all third.
“It was huge to come back, especially after we didn’t play so well in that first set,” MacDonald said.
That momentum proved unsustainable as Metea regressed back to 10 errors in Game 3. Waubonsie wrested control of the match for good by virtue of a 9-1 burst that gave the Warriors 16-8 lead. Metea had five errors during that stretch, but Waubonsie also got a kill from Taylor Dunwell, a Brooke Burling ace and a block from sophomore Briana Webb.
“We needed to be patient on our block, because some of Metea’s sets were higher,” Didier said. “Probably our blocks made them think a little bit.”
Dunwell had four kills and three blocks, including a spike for match point.
“We talked in between games about swinging for points. You can’t be hesitant,” Didier said. “Taylor does swing a heavy ball.”
Alexis Bass had nine kills, Autumn Long 15 digs and Miranda Cada 23 assists for Metea. Burling had nine digs and six kills, Lauren Hiller 12 assists and Sydney Slevin 17 digs for Waubonsie, which kept pace with Neuqua Valley atop the UEC Valley.
