Mars remains perfect on court
ADAMS TWP — One streak is over for Mars’ boys volleyball team, but a much more important one is alive and well.
The Planets dropped a set for the first time this season before rebounding to defeat visiting Latrobe, 3-1, on Thursday. The win keeps the Planets (16-0, 9-0) unbeaten on the season.
“Matches are way more important than sets,” said Mars coach Mike Nypaver after the victory, earned by scores of 25-17, 25-12, 28-30 and 25-21. “Not losing a set was never our goal and now that the streak is over, I think the kids can just relax and play our game.”
It appeared as though Mars was headed for another sweep when the Wildcats, led by Owen Ward and Jay Sumner, ripped momentum from the Planets’ grasp.
Latrobe built a 17-8 lead, though the Planets scored 18 of the next 26 points and were serving for match point when a service error tied the score at 26-all.
Ward, Sumner and Luke Fiore each dropped kills, with Fiore’s swing ending the match.
“It was nice to have that streak of not losing a set, but I think it’s good it ended before the playoffs,” said Mars outside hitter Derek Piatek, who had 15 kills on the night. “We know that we’ll be facing really good teams and we’ll be losing a set at some point. We needed to see how we could respond after dropping a set.”
The Planets responded by having six players drop at least one kill in the fourth set. The group was led by four kills apiece from Tyler Raabe and Ryan Ceh. The score was knotted at 7 when Mars reeled off an 8-1 run. A block from senior Liam Quinn proved key to the spurt, which Latrobe was not able to overcome.
“We were mad after losing the third set,” Piatek said. “We wanted to make up for it. Our passes were a lot better and we attacked the net harder.”
One of Mars’ sweeps this season came at Latrobe a month ago.
“We’ve been so dominant this year and we were so dominant in the first two sets tonight that I think we were just going through the motions at the start of the third set,” Piatek added. “But Latrobe was here to beat us.”
Nypaver could sense his team was back on track even as the third set played out.
“We were down by nine at one point and responded well, ended up stretching it out to 30 points,” he said. “Latrobe has improved a lot since the first time we played them. They’re good at the pins and have great ball control. I think they can be a dangerous team in the playoffs.”
Ceh had 16 kills for the Planets. Ward had 14 kills for the Wildcats and Sumner contributed 11.
The Planets close the regular season at home Tuesday against Derry.
