The Thunderbirds beat the Panthers in three sets, 25-12, 25-17, 25-11 in what was a superb effort on the offensive and defensive ends for Chautauqua Lake, despite the push back the Panthers gave them.

“They played a pretty good defensive game. We were hitting them hard, and they kept the ball in play,” said Chautauqua Lake coach Joanne Meadows. “Luckily, we kept hitting hard. We had a strong net game and that helped us.”

The Thunderbirds immediately showed why they have lost only once. They scored the first four points, and then after Pine Valley was able to get on the board, the Thunderbirds rattled off the next four points, forcing the lead to 8-1 before Pine Valley called a timeout. The lead would extend to 10-1 before Pine Valley went on a run of its own to make it 10-4. But Chautauqua Lake wasn’t done making long runs. The Lady Thunderbirds scored the next eight points, pushing the lead to 18-4. The last part of the opening set was played evenly, with both teams effectively trading pairs of points. Chautauqua Lake took the first set 25-12.

“We made too many errors overall serving and on the net,” said Pine Valley coach Kaitlyn Hoth. “They’re a good team and when you play a good team like that there is no time to make silly errors. I think we’re just as good as them and we played hard, but they aren’t the team to make errors against.”

OBSERVER Photo by Valory S. Isaacson Pine Valley’s Morgan Sandy sets a ball during Tuesday’s Section VI quarterfinal volleyball match at Chautauqua Lake.

Pine Valley gave their best run at Chautauqua Lake to begin the second set. Though Chautauqua Lake scored the first three points, Pine Valley was able to kill any big Chautauqua Lake run for the first part of the set and held a 10-9 lead late. Meadows said that the big adjustment for her team came from the new players she inserted into the lineup.

“I changed our lineup from the first game, so we were a little slow adjusting to the substitutions,” Meadows said. “Once they relaxed and got the nerves out of the way, we picked it up again.”

And picked it up they did.

After going down 10-9, the Thunderbirds ripped off their longest run of the night, scoring nine consecutive points, and 11 of the next 12 points overall to take a commanding edge in the set, though the rest of it was played closely by the Panthers, who fell 25-17.

The third set featured more Chautauqua Lake dominance. The Thunderbirds had two more runs of more than six points, and another run of five points as Pine Valley could not keep momentum. Hoth attributed the lack of momentum to the lack of noise at the Chautauqua Lake home court.

“The gym was quiet, and we’re not used to that. We’re a pretty high-energy team,” Hoth said. “So, it was tough to get ourselves up and energized when everything else was quiet.”

The Lady Thunderbirds took the last set 25-11, securing a match win and a chance at the semifinals on Thursday night against Panama, who downed Holland last night, on their home court.

Jessica Wiemer had six kills and two blocks for Chautauqua Lake, while Jenna Waters had three kills, five aces, and nine digs, while Brynn Engdahl added two kills, three aces and eight digs, and Mallory Morrison had three kills, six digs, and seven assists. Overall, the Thunderbirds had five runs of scoring at least six consecutive points, while not allowing the Panthers to score more than three points in a row at any point during the game.

“That’s what we work on,” Meadows said, “trying to keep the other team below three consecutive points. That doesn’t always happen, but it did tonight. Our serve-receive is finally getting where it needs to be.”

Meanwhile, the Panthers showed flashes of being able to keep up with Chautauqua Lake, but could not sustain any consistency. Hoth attributes this to the lack of consistent practice the team had.

“We’ve struggled with consistency all season,” Hoth said. “There are good things here and there, but I’ve had half my team at practice due to a musical. We’re never together consistently and that shows.”