TROY – The Franklin Monroe Lady Jets advance in OHSAA DIV tournament play with a 3-2 win over the pesky Sidney Lehman Catholic Lady Cavaliers.
“What a win,” said Franklin Monroe coach, Angie Filbrun following the match. “We had to battle all night and no lead was safe.”
Lehman took an early 3-0 lead to open first set play before the Lady Jets evened the score at 4-4. The set would see five lead changes and seven ties with the last coming at 19-19.
Franklin Monroe took a 21-19 advantage bringing a timeout from the Lady Cavaliers bench. Sidney made it a 1 point game trailing 21-20 before the Lady Jets closed out scoring with a 4-1 run to win 25-21 and lead 1-0 on the night.
Set No. 2 went to the Lady Cavaliers 25-22. FM largest deficit came with the Lady Jets trailing by 7 points at 21-14 and 22-15 before using a 7-3 run to close out scoring only to come up short in the 3 point loss and even the match at a game apiece.
The Lady Jets doubled up on the Lehman early in the third set taking a 14-7 lead and pushed its advantage to a double digit 22-12 lead on its way to a 25-16 set No. 3 win and take a 2-1 advantage.
The Lady Jets raced out to a 6-1 fourth set lead with Stella Shellabarger at the serving line bringin a timeout from the Lehman bench.
The Lady Cavaliers got back in the game knotting the score at 13-13 with Franklin Monroe going to the bench with a timeout. Lehman took a 5 point lead before the Lady Jets battled back to knot the score at 20-20 with Madison Byers at the line.
Lehman pushed ahead 22-20 and 23-21 with the FM battling back to tie the score at 23-23; but it was Lehman scoring the final 2 points to send the match to a fifth and final set to pick a winner to move on in tournament play.
The Franlin Monroe Lady Jets proved to be up to the fifth set task handily defeating the Lady Cavaliers by a 15-8 score and advance in tournament action.
“Lehman was a great team but we came together and worked really hard to get the 5 set win,” stated Coach Filbrun. “It was a full team effort, our passing and defense kept us going and our front row play was so well rounded. It takes all of us working together to come out on top.”
“We will get back to work to prepare for the second round with Ansonia,” Filbun added.
The Franklin Monroe Lady Jets advance to play the Ansonia Lady Tigers at Troy High School, Saturday, October 24 with an 11 a.m. start time.
