OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms Gowanda’s Emma Luther serves during Wednesday’s volleyball game against Fredonia, in Gowanda.

GOWANDA — After battling back and forth the majority of the first two sets, the Gowanda Panthers had their best runs in the end of each set to help them jump out to a 2-0 lead and eventual 3-0 victory over Fredonia.

The Panthers defeated the Fredonia Hillbillies, 26-24, 25-20, 25-19 in a Section VI CCAA North volleyball match at Gowanda High School, on Wednesday.

“They’re always very tough competition,” Fredonia head coach Amanda Krakowiak said of Gowanda. “I have a lot of respect for them and their program. It’s great to have good competition and we know when we walk in here that it’s going to be a tough match and we’re going to have to be ready for that.

To begin the 2019 volleyball season, both Fredonia and Gowanda came ready to play as they went back and forth in the early going of the opening set. Fredonia was the first to get an early run as they jumped out to an 8-4 lead.

However, Fredonia (0-1) was unable to further separate themselves from Gowanda and allowed them to battle back. This continued to be the theme of the first set, where Fredonia would get a short run and then Gowanda followed up with a run of their own.

Gowanda (1-0) eventually took the momentum toward the end of the first set and went up 22-19, and prompted Fredonia to call a timeout. After the break Gowanda maintained the three point bubble until match point at 24-21, but Fredonia would not give up and battled to even it up at 24-24. Gowanda called their first timeout to stop the Hillbillie rally and then went on to take the first set 26-24.

“I think mental endurance is one of those things that we need to tweak,” said Coach Krakowiak. “Getting a lead and holding a lead — not letting them answer back. That’s something we have discussed a lot in the past and something that we’re still continuing to work on.”

Similar to the first set, in the second set Fredonia set the tone as they scored the first three points. Fredonia held a three point buffer again over the Panthers until Gowanda scored a five point run to take a 10-9 lead. Both sides exchanged scores for the next 10 points, until Gowanda found another short run giving them the 23-19 lead.

Despite the momentum clearly tilting in Gowanda’s favor, the Hillbillies battled to hold on and managed a huge point after an extended volley to make it 23-20.

After surrendering the next point, Fredonia called a timeout to prevent going down two sets — the timeout did not work as on the next serve the Panthers got an ace to win 25-20.

Unlike the first two sets, the third set Gowanda carried their momentum with them. Gowanda got up early and maintained a lead varying from 2-4 points, until a pivotal moment when their lead escalated to 21-15. The young Fredonia squad dug in and battled back to a score of 22-19, but that was as close as they would get — eventually losing the final set 25-21 on a Miya Scanlan ace.

“I think we’re gelling well,” added Coach Krakowiak. “Our team chemistry is good. Small things that we need to work on — I think our serving struggled tonight and a little bit of our serve receive. Just kind of placing the ball at times, but overall I’m very pleased with the start. We just have some things to continue to tweak.”

The strong Gowanda performance was led by Scanlan, Paige Gabel, Madison Clark and Makenzie Carroll. Scanlan had three digs, six kills, two aces and two blocks; Gabel had three blocks and four kills; Clark had five aces, three digs and two kills and Carroll had 11 digs.

Fredonia’s effort was led by their youngest player, Rebecca Piede who got five assists and four aces — Piede also stood out as the strongest server for Fredonia.

“Becca being the youngest player on our team, she definitely rose to the occasion,” stated Krakowiak. “Being put in that, serving in stressful situations. It was great for her team to be able to count on her to have a consistent serve tonight.”

Anna Valone also had a strong performance with six kills and two aces. Maddy Marsh stepped up defensively for Fredonia with 10 digs.

“She did a great job tonight and a great job on defense for us,” added Coach Krakowiak.