Deer Lakes volleyball sweeps Plum in early-season test

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, March 26, 2018 | 11:26 PM

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The Deer Lakes boys volleyball team used decisive runs en route to wins in each of the first two games of Monday's nonsection match at Plum.

The Mustangs, however, didn't go quietly in Game 3.

Plum led 21-20 and had the score tied at 24-24 before the Lancers scored two in a row to pull out the win and finish the 3-0 sweep.

“It was good to get the win, but we didn't play as well as we would've liked,” Deer Lakes senior hitter Dan Hutchinson said. “We didn't play 100 percent. We still have a lot of work to do. Our rivals are better than we thought, and we know they will be coming after us.”

Deer Lakes, No. 2 in the latest WPIAL Class AA rankings, kicked off its season Friday with a 3-1 home win over Armstrong. The Lancers then played at the Norwin tournament Saturday and had a quick turnaround for Monday's match.

The team returns to action Thursday at home for its section opener against a Summit Academy team hoping to fare better than its 0-8 record in section from last spring.

“We haven't practiced since last Thursday,” Deer Lakes coach Brady Schuller said. “It will be nice to get a couple of days of practice. Hopefully, the guys can pick up the pace and get going.”

When asked about taking the experiences from three days of competition into the practice sessions, Schuller said, “I have a couple of pages of notes. We have some things work on.”

Plum, hoping to improve on its 3-11 section record from last year and return to the WPIAL playoffs, began its season Saturday at the North Allegheny tournament, and it will jump into Section 3-AAA play Tuesday at Norwin.

“It's always good to go up against teams as good as Deer Lakes early in the season,” Mustangs coach Keith Nonnenberg said.

“That's really how you learn. They have several really good players. With just playing the North Allegheny tournament, too, we're kind of shell-shocked right now. The guys have experienced a lot already with really good teams like Seneca Valley and Ambridge, and they get Norwin (Tuesday). But we're seeing improvement from all the guys through all of these games.”

Senior hitter Tyler Osselborn was strong at the net and led Deer Lakes with 17 kills. Fellow Lancers senior Shane Yurussi added eight blocks, and he delivered a kill that finished off a 25-17 Game 1 victory.

Deer Lakes used a 7-0 run to open a 20-10 lead in the first game. Staring at game point a couple of minutes later, Plum reeled off four consecutive points before Yurussi's winning hit.

The Mustangs and Lancers were tied at 7-7 in Game 2 before Deer Lakes used a 9-2 run to open a 16-9 advantage. Osselborn and sophomore Scott Rothrauff delivered kills to put the Lancers up seven.

Senior Josh Solomon capped the game victory at 25-14 as he appeared to begin a pass at the net but instead redirected the ball over the net and into a dead zone on Plum's side of the court.

The Mustangs rallied from deficits of 15-11 and 18-15 in Game 3 to lead 21-20, but four errors down the stretch snuffed out their attempt at staying alive in the match.

Senior Chad Tindall put the win in the books for Deer Lakes with an ace at match point.

“Plum is definitely a scrappy team,” Schuller said. “They don't give you a whole lot of hard-driven stuff, but they'll hit off your hands and make you move. They made us work for a lot of our points.”

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Mlove_Trib.

Tags: Deer Lakes, Plum