SOMERS, N.Y. - On Tuesday, Sept. 15, Somers hosted Lakeland, and the visitors definitely had a whirlwind of hitters to stand down. On the other side, the Tuskers had at least one blaster for the Hornets to contend with, and his first-set kill to make it a 6-5 game matched the hitter’s overall mindset.
“I try to punish the other team,” said Joey DePace, but the Somers force wasn’t enough in a straight-set loss.
Still, the first set went back and forth until the halfway point. Adding in a few Lakeland miscues, Jordan Daniyan found open space in the back with his push, and Aaron Rojas and DePace knocked consecutive kills to close the home team to within one. Then came Van Bui’s dink, and it was all even at six.
The knot held at nine on kills by DePace and Daniyan, and next, Somers did more than keep pace. Justin Cirioni turned back Isaac Arias’ spike in the middle, and Patrick Lojano wasn’t fooled on Erdin Dedushaj’s dink. In the Hornets’ face, Somers led 12-10.
Unfortunately, Somers got the same medicine in reply. Daniyan tried to deceive with his middle dink, and Dedushaj wasn’t biting. He stuffed the Tusker, and an ace by Ben Mathew later made it a 12-12 tie.
Somers maintained the status quo on a big dig by Jack Loscher, but at 13-13, Lakeland was done playing. Led by a Logan Tolve block and Luke Numme’s kill from the center, the Hornets scored five straight.
At 18-13, Somers still stood tall. Max Weinfeld made a one-handed save in the back, and DePace went to his knees to dig out Tolve’s windmill. Strong defense that didn’t come out of nowhere.
“We work hard on digs in practice,” said Loscher.
A carry eventually rewarded the point to Lakeland, and an ace by Bui gave the Hornets game one, 25-17.
The Hornets came out swarming in the second set. Arias opted to dink, blocked DePace on the next point, and after a few Somers errors, Bui’s ace made it six in a row to start.
Somers was undeterred, though. Patrick Lojano dug out Dedushaj’s blast to stop the run, and then DePace put summer school to work for his team.
“At camp, my coach taught me a couple of tricks,” said the Somers hitter, and three aces later, Somers was within one.
The Tuskers stayed at 7-6 when Weinfeld stood down Arias’ projectile and took a 9-8 lead on Tyler Phillip’s ace. Weinfeld took out his shovel on the next point, too, but Tolve’s subsequent kill followed to tie the score at nine.
Bui scored with a second-ball dink to take the lead for good and then doubled the lead with a kill from the middle. Four straight Somers miscues opened a 16-9 advantage, and then Lakeland got everyone involved. Tolve had a dink and two kills, Dedushaj had a diving save and a kill from the middle, Arias added two more kills, and Mathew finished the set off with an ace.
Onto game three, DePace wasn’t giving in. Two serves and two aces gave Somers a 2-0 lead. The lead would grow to 5-1 when Lojano anticipated Dedushaj’s dink, but the possibility of a comeback was ready to end.
Tolve killed to stop the run and switched gears with a perfect set to Numme. Down to 5-4, Tolve knocked again to tie, and Dedushaj didn’t wait when the Somers bump came over on the first ball.
Another kill gave Lakeland its first lead, and Somers didn’t help its cause with five straight errors. Tolve rubbed it in with another winning spike, and Lakeland maintained a 15-9 lead with a Bui kill.
Somers wouldn’t go away, though. Including a few Lakeland misfires, the Tuskers got to within three on a Cirioni knock and a DePace ace.
Unfortunately, a serving run wasn’t within DePace, and after his next serve crashed into the net, Lakeland played the whole deck. Dedushaj killed twice, and Tolve and Numme added their own blasts for a 22-15 lead.
There was too much separation to overcome. Tolve aced to close the match, but Somers kept its heads up in defeat.
“I’m proud that we kept our energy going,” said Loscher.
An easy lift for the setter because of the nature of the game.
“I like volleyball because you’re always doing something,” he concluded.
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