Meridian nearly upsets Leyton at state tournament
Meridian had the top team in Class D2 on the ropes Thursday in the first round of the NSAA State Tournament, but undefeated Leyton was able to rally for three straight wins to win in five sets.
Leyton, who comes into the tournament undefeated, won the match 23-25, 22-25, 25-20, 25-23, 15-4 to advance to Friday's semifinals.
Leyton had only lost six total sets all season, but Meridian wasn't having it as they stole the first two sets in thrilling fashion. The third set was tight early, but Leyton came alive late to win by five.
Meridian's best chance to finish off the Warriors came in the fourth set. The set was tied 22-22 before Leyton scored three of the last four points to win 25-23, forcing a fifth set.
Meridian ran out of juice in the fifth set as Leyton motored out to a 7-3 lead, forcing a Meridian timeout. Leyton scored five straight to extend the lead to 12-3 before going on to win 15-4.
Despite faltering in that fifth set, head coach Brooke Wolfe said she couldn't have asked much more of her team.
"I'm so proud of their effort," Wolfe said. "We came out strong, we just couldn't finish today. (Leyton) is a good team and they got it together after the first two sets."
Meridian came into the match with a 20-10 record, but it was apparent early that the two teams were more evenly matched than their records indicated.
"We came in with confidence," Wolfe said. "We knew they were undefeated, but the losses we've had have been tough losses, but our record wasn't reflective of our team. We came in with lots of confidence. We may have been the eight seed, but we had confidence we could beat them and we showed that the first two sets."
Meridian had only played in two five-set matches all season and lost both of them. Wolfe said they knew the fifth set would be challenging.
"We hadn't won a five-set match yet," Wolfe said. "We just weren't in shape to play five sets. We gave it all we could and that's all I can ask."
McKenzie Hofstetter led the way for Meridian with 16 kills while Jaylee Sobotka had 14 kills, 28 digs and one ace serve. Taelyn Filipi had 12 kills and six digs while Braxtyn Rut had 11 kills and 24 digs. Jetta Stewart had 31 assists and 20 digs while Olivia Schafer had 23 assists and 15 digs. Maria Dimas had 13 digs and Kendall Filipi had 11 digs.
Points were tough to come by all day for Leyton has Meridian's trademark scrappiness on defense kept them in the game.
"We just have a lot of heart when we play," Wolfe said. "That's that it comes down to."
Meridian finishes the season with a 20-11 season, but were playing some of their best volleyball down the stretch. It was the final match for seniors Rut, Taelyn Filipi, Dimas, Sobotka and Hofstetter.
"We had a rough MUDECAS Tournament early in the season and we found our way after that," Wolfe said. "We lost some seniors last year, so it took us some time to find that senior leadership this year. Once we got there, we started playing much better and our senior leaders had everything to do that."
