Girls' volleyball: Chambersburg falls to Cumberland Valley after disjointed effort

CHAMBERSBURG >> Thursday night's match is one Chambersburg is going to want to forget quickly.

The Trojan girls volleyball team was missing a pair of starters, and it showed in a 3-0 loss to Cumberland Valley in what was touted as a Mid Penn Commonwealth Division showdown. Chambersburg looked a bit disjointed from the start, and the Eagles capitalized with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-14 victory.

"You know, I think once we got down, it was hard to get back in it," Chambersburg's Jenna Lombardozzi said. "In such an emotional game, it was hard for us to get back up. We were thrown off a little bit missing Rebecca (Stewart) and Danessa (Martin). It was a very last minute thing, so our rotations were off, and that threw us off a bit."

Stewart suffered a concussion during the Trojans' match against State College, and Martin was struggling with an illness that kept her out of Thrusday night's match.

The absence of those two definitely showed, especially on serve receive where the Trojans (13-5, 11-5 MPC) couldn't get anything going.

"Not having those two, they are good passers, but it shouldn't have affected us that much," Chambersburg coach Ty Frelin said. "We couldn't pass out of serve receive. CV served tough, and we struggled passing. When you struggle passing, it's hard to get in the rhythm of anything."

Offense was pretty easy to come by for Cumberland Valley (18-1, 14-1 MPC). Emma Grever led the Eagles with 13 kills, while Steph Neast followed with 11 and Peighton Wright contributed eight.

"When we started off, we were struggling a little bit with keep our passes off the net," Neast said. "Our setter (Julie Nightwine, who finished with 40 assists) couldn't really get good sets to our hitters. Once we brought the passes back a bit, she was able to make good decisions and the hitters were able to finish."

After having six unforced hitting errors in the first set alone, the Eagles had just four the rest of the way. Cumberland Valley also adjusted well to Chambersburg's blockers, who put up a good fight in the first set but were less effective as the night went on.

"The game plan is when you see the big block to make better setting choices so that we can make hits away from the big blockers," CV coach Jackie Orner said. "As the game went along, we did that better, but in the beginning, not so much."

One standout for the Trojans was Cara Long, who finished with four digs and four blocks.

"Cara's game has been improving every week," Frelin said. "She had a real good match against State College and did some good things offensively tonight. It was just a tough night, and we were a bit disjointed."

The leading hitter for the Trojans was Caitlin Vrabel, who had nine kills, while Bailee Nitterhouse finished with four. Lauren Ching contributed 17 assists and 11 digs, and Kailey Layman paced the defense with 15 digs.

Cumberland Valley 3 Chambersburg 0

Sets — 25-18, 25-20, 25-14

at CASHS Field House

Cumberland Valley Statistics

Kills — Emma Grever 13, Steph Neast 11, Peighton Wright 8; Assists — Jamie Nightwine 40; Digs — Autumn Otto 10, Biana Harbold 5, Julie Nightwine 4, Grever 4; Aces — Emily Nesgoda 3, Grever 3, Otto 2, Neast 2.

Chambersburg Statistics

Kills — Caitlin Vrabel 9, Bailee Nitterhouse 4, Cara Long 4, Lauren Diller 2, Lauren Ching 2; Blocks — Long 4; Assists — Ching 17; Digs — Kailey Layman 15, Ching 11, Jenna Lombardozzi 9, Megan Bard 4, Diller 4; Service points — Layman 6, Diller 5, Vrabel 5; Aces — Vrabel 2, Megan Preso 1.

JV score — Chambersburg 2, Cumberland Valley 0 (25-10, 25-15).