The Lions of South Lyon hadn’t lost a match since the championship game of the Brighton Championship back on Aug. 19 and when cross-town rival South Lyon East came into the jungle Wednesday night, the ladies had no intentions of ending that streak.
South Lyon dominated the Cougars in straight sets 25-16, 25-15, and 25-15.
Related: Photo gallery from South Lyon vs. South Lyon East
The Cougars managed to get out to a 3-1 lead to start things out and seemed to have the Lions off their game a bit but South Lyon came back strong erasing that early deficit going ahead 10-9 and running staying in control through the remainder of that set taking home the 25-16 victory in the first set.
“The energy in the gym tonight was incredible throughout the freshman, the JV, and the varsity games,” remarked South Lyon head coach Rebecca Tincknell after the match. “I have never heard the gym this loud before so I think we were a little timid at first. They overcame that and continued to play hard.”
The second set saw the Lions jump out to a 5-0 lead before South Lyon East clawed back to tie things at 5-5. From that point on the Lions again, slowly extended their lead to take the set 25-15.
In what would be the third and decisive set, the Cougars jumped out to a 3-0 lead before South Lyon tied things at 5-5 again and methodically extended their lead again to take the third set 25-15.
On the night South Lyon was led offensively by Abby Durecki who had nine kills and an incredible 0.467 hitting percentage. Chloe Grimes added nine kills on the night and Cailey Carlson had seven kills. Emily Kalinowski came up huge as well offensively with 37 assists in the three-set match.
Defensively for the Lions Stephanie Kalinowski had 15 digs while Abbey Durecki and Danielle Booth both had two blocks.
For the Cougars, Katie Bluden had 8 kills, Lauren Kuznicki dropped in three aces and Sam Dienek provided five blocks.
The win moves the Lions to 14-1-2 as they prepare for their next match on Saturday while the loss drops the Cougars to 3-2 on the season.
