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New Knoxville's Avery Albers (7) goes for the spike as Parkway's Naomi Knapke tries to block.
NEW KNOXVILLE - They consider the MAC one of the most competitive conferences in the state.
Because there are no gimmes.
On Thursday, six-win New Knoxville brought a battle to 16-win Parkway, which was fully expected by Panthers coach Jordan Henkle. Parkway won in four sets, but it was far from easy.
"You've got to find ways to win in MAC games," he said following a 25-12, 23-25, 25-19, 25-18 victory. "We didn't play our best. I think New Knoxville is really scrappy. They got a lot of balls up and just kept fighting all night. They've got good hitters who can put the ball away. I think we've got to find ways to dictate the tempo of how the rallies are going and shut it down a little quicker."
The Panthers shut down a Ranger rally at the end. With the Rangers pushing to force a fifth set, the Panthers scored the final six points to secure the victory.
"Defensively, we were a little more relentless," New Knoxville coach Ellie Gabel said. "We just had a few miscommunications that killed us and we let them go on a few too many runs."
Hadley Stover had a big service run for Parkway in the opening set, collecting an ace and helping her team take a 17-7 lead. Savada Triplett controlled the net in set one for Parkway, racking up several kills in the 25-12 win.
Parkway's Savada Triplett returns a serve against New Knoxville.
After facing a 5-2 disadvantage in the second set, Knoxville regrouped and turned that into a 13-9 advantage. The Rangers held a 20-17 lead before a Cami Langenkamp kill. Langenkamp went behind the service line and helped Parkway take a 22-20 lead, with Izzy Knapke and Megan Hughes making plays up front. But the Rangers kept at it, tying the score at 23-all. A kill by Avery Albers and a hitting error gave them a 25-23 win.
"I think we controlled our side of the net and let them make the errors on their side," Gabel said. "I thought we hit aggressively. We swung high off the block. We were relentless on defense and that's what drives us."
But Parkway had all facets working early in set three en route to taking a 14-7 lead. Knoxville scored the next three points, but Parkway responded with four in a row. The Rangers were within four points late in the set, but kills by Knapke and Triplett and an ace by Langenkamp sealed a 25-19 victory and a 2-1 lead.
The fourth set was tied four times. The final tie came at 7-all, but from there Parkway scored the next six points. Knoxville battled back to make it 19-18, but the Rangers couldn't score again as Parkway closed out the 25-18 victory.
Triplett led Parkway in kills with 13, while Langenkamp added 11. KJae Stover (26 assists) and Hadley Stover (20 digs) also had big games for the Panthers (17-2, 5-2 MAC).
Albers had 18 kills and 17 digs for Knoxville. Lela Gottschalk (33 assists) and Aaliyah Gengler (four blocks) also had big nights for the Rangers (6-13, 1-6 MAC).
