Tipp was the aggressor…Sidney’s Alena Sweariingen recoils from the shot attempt of Tipp’s Savannah Clawson during Tuesday’s Red Devils win over the Yellow Jackets. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
It took 57 minutes for Tipp to sweep past Sidney Tuesday to remain unbeaten in volleyball…and nine matches into 2025, they’ve yet to lose a set.
Sidney, OH – When the Tipp volleyball girls drubbed an overmatched Fairborn team last week coach Howard Garcia made the obvious statement about the obvious fact.
“We’re not going to be challenged much in our league,” said Garcia, after yet another straight-set run in Miami Valley League play. Compiling a 21-1 regular season record last year, the only team they lost a set to was a MAC team – Versailles – in the final match of the season. They won 63 consecutive sets for the year, and 54 consecutive within the MVL.
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They added to their string on Tuesday with another straight-set win, this time over Sidney – 25-11, 25-9, and 25-19 – benefiting from the fact that Sidney entered the match with an 8-2 record, and in the final set of the match, at one point held a 19-14 lead over Tipp.
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But the first two sets were all Tipp, and all the time. They served better, they hit better, they blocked better, they defended and passed better against an athletic and talented Sidney group that will easily justify their record by tournament selection weekend in another month. Sidney challenged Tipp at times throughout the match on Tuesday, and impressively, Tipp responded in kind.
Through those first two games Faith Siefring, Morgan Sessions, and Abby Mader served aggressively – accurately – and pinned down Sidney’s serve-receive, scrambling to make that all-important first pass. Tipp took full advantage, driving one kill after another – one tip after another – through the flummoxed Yellow Jacket defense for points. The first set, start to finish, took 16 minutes to complete.
The second was a mirror image of the first, as again Tipp powered the ball at Sidney’s defense, forcing the ‘Jackets to adjust on the fly. Coaches call it being ‘out of system’ in volleyball, and it’s not a good thing when it happens to you. It’s a wonderful thing, however, when you do it to an opponent.
Tipp’s Courtney Post powers a point through the Sidney defense during Tuesday’s 3-0 win.
“We imposed our will,” said Garcia after the match. “They didn’t play badly, we just imposed our will. We played our tempo, the way we wanted to play, and according to the way we scouted them. We were able to stop some of the things they like to do offensively, and we neutralized their outside hitter, completely. Tonight we were a glimpse of how good we might yet be by the end of the regular season. We were challenged in the third and final set, and we responded.”
To their credit, the Sidney girls applied some pressure of their own at the start of the third set, playing Tipp even at 4-4 to start, and maintained that pace to 12-12, before taking their first lead at 13-12. And down 13-12 to Sidney, Tipp went through a funk – a loss of focus – for the next five minutes that allowed Sidney to impose their own will…go on a 6-2 run and open up a surprising 19-14 lead over Tipp.
Garcia, a veteran of thousands of sets and hundreds of different teams and personalities, chose not to call a timeout. He let them, in fact, figure things out for themselves. And, they did!
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At 19-14 Tipp scored on a thunderous kill by Savannah Clawson.
They scored on a smothering block at the net by Lexi Luginbuhl, and suddenly the deficit was 19-16, and the all-important momentum in volleyball seemed to flip to the Red Devils in the span of those two points.
Sidney’s Kalesha Rush (#11) and Tipp’s Lexi Luginbuhl battle at the net.
Senior Morgan Sessions, as cool as the other side of the pillow, went to the service line and started hitting lasers at the back row of the Sidney’s defense. One by one she handcuffed the Sidney serve-receive and began to cut into that 3-point deficit.
19-17…19-18…19-19…Sessions was on point, and on fire.
“I just tried to be calm. I asked God to help me settle down,” she smiled. “I was able to keep my composure and kept hitting the ball over the net…and let the team play things out.
“This was a good team for us to play,” she added. “We don’t get challenged a lot and Sidney gave us good competition in the final set. It was good just to see how we could handle that. And we’re going to see some more good teams in the future with Versailles and Coldwater. So I’m excited for those matches. It should help us before going into the tournament.”
Note to Versailles and Coldwater: It should help them, too, because this Tipp team has a lot of weapons, experience, and a motivation to overcome some of their past disappointments; and those whispers from the those who question just how good they really are once they get outside the comfort of the Miami Valley League.
Howard Garcia understands, and has no hard feelings.
“The teams that are able to control their emotions and get out of bad stretches [like the third set] are the teams that show they can go farther in whatever area of the game they need to be. That’s why we didn’t call a timeout in the third set when we were down. We didn’t want to give them the advantage of the timeout when we were on that final run.”
Good teams, they say, will figure it out for themselves.
Garcia and Morgan Sessions believe that at 9-0…this Tipp team is a ‘very’ good team.
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