Faith Cornmesser stretches to retur nthe ball to Dayton in Thursday's 3A volleyball match.
Fallon swept Dayton Thursday night in a Northern 3A match at the Greenwave’s Elmo Dericco Gym to improve to 10-4 overall, 7-1 in Northern 3A play.
Fallon and Dayton battled fiercely in the first set with Fallon breaking a tie to score the final three points for a 25-22 win.
Playing without six seniors who opted to remain behind in Dayton and partake in homecoming activities, the Dust Devils pushed Fallon in the opening set.
The score see-sawed three times early in theset before Fallon broke a 6-6 tie and outscored Dayton 3-1 behind a kill from Kayla Buckmaster (six in the match) and a block in the middle from Aleisa Billips and Zoey Swisher.
Dayton tied the set 12-12 and then took a three-point lead behind Luisa Flores’ serving.
The Dust Devils kept a small advantage over the hosts before Fallon clawed back to tie the set. A Dayton error allowed Fallon to tie the set before the Wave rolled on a 5-2 run.
Haylee Paladini recorded two kills, while Whitney Skabelund responded with some timely hitting,
“My team fought a hard battle against the Greenwave tonight,” said Dayton coach Monica Halverson. “Due to conflicting activities, we went into tonight’s match with six of my 12 players.”
Fallon coach Patty Daum said she was proud of the way the younger Dayton players competed against Fallon and how tenacious they were in the first set.
Daum said the Wave played well but inconsistent in the fist set.
Behind the serving of Fallon’s Swisher, the Wave jumped out in front 8-0 in the second set and never looked back. Paladini kept Dayton off-guard with her hits, and LeAnn Stands plugged up the middle with her blocks.
Dayton struggled to score against Fallon as the Wave dominated the front line and pinpointed many returns.
The Wave outscored Dayton 9-0 to finish the set. Buckmaster had two kills, one that sizzled down the left six, and Stands took care of business as a middle blocker.
In the third set, both teams relied on their serving and outside hitters. The match was tied six times before Fallon pulled away.
“Brianda Diaz played the libero position with so much heart and her stats were through the roof,” Halverson said. “The Mason twins (Ashley and Rebecca) found their groove and played the net with grit.”
Skabelund kept Fallon in the set during the first half of play with several nice kills and a serving ace. At one point Dayton took a 13-11 lead but Fallon roared back with six unanswered points, helped by Swisher’s serving (two straight aces) and a Paladini kill.
Fallon regained its momentum and pulled away from Dayton on a Skabelund kill and soft tip over the net, and Faith Cornmesser’s kill.
Daum said Swisher and Skabelund (four kills) played well as did Paladini (five kills, four digs) with her kills.
“There were mismatches up front with Cornmesser, and she took advantage of it,” Daum said.