Maple Grove jumped on Westfield in the third set going up 14-4, but the Wolverines dug deep and pushed the match beyond 25 points.

However, the Red Dragons were able to outlast the state’s top-ranked Class D team for a 32-30 win in the third set, following up decisions of 25-20 and 25-22 for a Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 3 victory.

“We took a hard loss to Panama last week,” Maple Grove head coach Ardelle Rambacher stated. “So we’ve been focused all week making sure that we’re staying strong, making sure we’re finishing and we knew we had to take Westfield seriously because they’re No. 1 in our league. If we didn’t take that third match, I was scared to go four and five with them because they’re that good.”

Westfield trailed in the third set 23-19 before rallying four straight points to tie, but the Wolverines were unable to get out of their own way to secure the win, as was the case in the first two sets.

The Wolverines’ Mackenzie Schumaker passes to a teammate. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms

“We made too many mistakes,” Westfield head coach Greg Birner said about his team. “That’s all it was. Way too many service errors, way too many mistakes. The fight is always there, but just mental errors, mistake after mistake cost us. It’s bound to happen, they fought back through some of their mistakes, but if you make 10-15 service errors you’re likely to cough up a game.”

The Wolverines took the early lead in the first set, but allowed Maple Grove to claw back in and go on a big run to take a victory. The Red Dragons scored seven straight points late in the opening frame before giving Westfield its eighth lost set of the year.

“We knew that we could play with them,” Rambacher said. “We did adjust our defense, we focused a little bit more on our defense this time around because they do hit hard.”

In the second set, neither side seemed to want the lead in a back and forth match that only saw a run as long as three. Maple Grove did pull away at the end, scoring in little bunches and held on for the win that fired up the crowd.

The Red Dragons found success all night from the service line and when pulling away in the third set it was highlighted. Both Annie Steffen and Bayley Godfrey scored six aces, with three of Steffen’s coming in the pivotal third set.

Maple Grove players celebrate after beating Westfield in CCAA Division 3 volleyball Tuesday at Maple Grove. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms

“Today, I think we took advantage of their serve receive,” Rambacher stated. “We served well tonight. We took advantage of them sending a lot of free balls our way and we were able to make some kills.”

Maple Grove’s (10-3, 4-2) big-time players responded with a great game after being swept by Panama in league action last week. Bry Cornell provided six kills, three blocks, seven digs and an ace; Zoey Foley had five kills, 15 digs and an ace; Mady Haglund made 21 assists and an ace; Rylee King had seven kills; and Ariyah Brown collected nine digs.

After going down 14-4, Westfield dug deep to get back into the third set and leading the way all night were Nahlia Douglas with seven kills and five digs. Maddie Burgess had a kill, 10 assists and three aces, and Avery Smith provided four kills and two aces.

“They’ve pieced together pretty good volleyball throughout,” Birner added. “One thing I’d like to say is that in Class D volleyball there is no easy team. Everybody has to work hard to play every game, playoffs could have a lot of upset games. I think the biggest thing is to not make mental errors, we’ve been able to avoid mental errors throughout most of the season, but today piled up.”

However, in the midst of a comeback, Westfield (11-1, 5-1) suffered a serious injury to Molly Burgess that’s the main focus of the Wolverines heading forward instead of moving past their first loss.

“This is the first time it’s happened, I guess we’ll see how it goes on Thursday,” Birner said about responding to the loss. “I think it’s a matter of cleaning up mistakes and seeing where we go. Molly got a severe injury there and she is one of the cornerstones of our team, and certainly in the middle of a comeback that’s a tough piece to lose. I think the adversity is you can’t replace a Molly that’s all over the floor for us, but certainly the team will have to ante up and kick in a little bit more.”