FOXBURG, Pa. (EYT/D9) — They squared off across the net from each other all night.
Middle hitters Lexi Ruckdeschel of A-C Valley and Ayanna Ferringer of Cranberry had quite the battle.
(Above, Ayanna Ferringer)
Both had big nights. Ferringer’s was just a little better.
The Berries’ junior had 23 kills as Cranberry rallied for seven out of the final eight points in a pivotal third set on the way in winning the match in four over the Falcons, 25-23, 14-25, 25-23, 25-15 on Thursday night.
“That’s a pretty classic matchup,” said A-C Valley coach Mike Meals. “It was fun watching them go at it again and again. In my opinion, those are the two best middle hitters in the KSAC.”
They proved it.
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Early, Ruckdeschel was able to deny Ferringer. The A-C Valley senior had five blocks on the night to go with 14 kills of her own.
But Ferringer made some adjustments that paid off. She had 10 kills in that key third set and added five more in the final game to help Cranberry to the hard-fought victory.
“She was blocking me, so I just had to look for the open spot, and I started tipping a little bit,” Ferringer said. “I had to work around it that way.”
Ferringer, who also had five blocks — mostly against Ruckdeschel — enjoyed the one-on-one matchup against A-C Valley’s big star at the net.
“It’s definitely fun because it’s great competition,” Ferringer said. “It’s really fun to test myself and push myself.”
With those two locked in their own battle of wills, so too was A-C Valley and Cranberry.
(Lexi Ruckdeschel)
The match may have come down to just a handful of points.
The Falcons had a chance to take the first set, leading 20-19, but Cranberry closed strong with three of the final four points to wrest the game away and take a 1-0 lead.
A-C Valley (7-5) dominated the second set, but not being able to put the Berries away in the third severely crippled its chances.
The Falcons led 22-18, but Cranberry got four kills from Ferringer to close the set on a 7-1 run for another 25-23 win.
“That was the turning point,” said Cranberry coach Jennifer Stover. “Instead of being like, ‘Holy cow, they’re really playing,’ we started to play our game and started to get aggressive.”
It’s been a familiar refrain for A-C Valley this season in losses — building late leads in sets only to watch them slip away.
“We have to get through some sort of mental block that we go through,” Meals said. “That’s probably eight games this year, eight sets that we’ve had a similar lead and lost it in the end. We’ll keep fighting.”
The deflation of letting the third set slip away carried over into the fourth.
Cranberry (9-4) seized control of the game early, building leads of 13-7, 16-8 and then 18-9.
A-C Valley, though, was able to trim it to 20-15, but the Berries closed out the victory with five consecutive points.
Ferringer wasn’t the only one to have a big night for Cranberry.
Brooke Hart pitched in eight kills and Ashlynn Collins had 27 assists.
“Brooke Hart played really well,” Stover said. “They are super. I think we had 50 kills on Tuesday and most of them came from (Ferringer and Hart). Both are super strong.”
Ferringer said Hart helps take a lot of the pressure off of her.
“We are like each other’s right-hand man,” Ferringer said, smiling. “It’s so much fun playing with her. She’s really intense and competitive and she always has my back.”
Ferringer is a threat no matter where she in on the court. She launched some attacks on Thursday from the back row.
“We’ve worked on that a lot this year,” Stover said. “I think it’s been really effective.”
Ruckdeschel also had 13 digs for A-C Valley.
Bella Ielase had a big night for the Falcons, too, with nine kills and 19 digs.
“Lexi was obviously on tonight,” Meals said. “But Bella might have been my MVP. She did everything we could ask of her. She played really well.”
Cranberry Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.
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