The streak lives on.
Ryle’s last loss to Conner came in 2003. It’s a streak so long that Ryle senior Alexis Woolf’s mother Jen was the head coach at Conner at the time.
Not only did the Raiders win convincingly on Thursday night in Union, 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-23), but it was a special night for Woolf, digging up 20 balls on her way to breaking the Ryle career digs record at 1,287. Chase Barber, a 2016 graduate, held the previous record with 1,274.
Ryle won its 35th straight against Conner overall and moved to 2-0 in 33rd District play.
The Raiders (4-4) had 56 digs for the match.
“That was our goal. We knew we couldn’t always block them,” said Tasha Lovins, Ryle head coach. “But if we could slow them down, get touches on the balls and give our defense a chance, I felt that worked pretty well.”
Ryle finished with 37 kills, 31 assists, two aces and two blocks in the win. Lucy Trapp led the way with 14 kills and seven digs, continuing to help offset the loss to versatile senior Kiana Dinn, a Pittsburgh commit, who has not played yet this season due to an injury.
“I feel like it’s really important to place the ball,” Trapp said. “We’ve been working hard on finding different shots and areas trying not to use the same spots every time.”
Karsyn Griffin and Morgan Heater tallied 16 and 10 assists, respectively, helping the Raiders hit around Conner’s powerful blocks.
“We’ve been working in practice as a team and not individuals,” Heater said. “That’s the most important thing. We made sure our attitudes were up and made sure we gave feedback to our setters and talked to our hitters, telling them where the spots were open. I think we did really well on that.”
Conner (10-2) had success when their power hitters got their swings in with 35 kills, 13 blocks, 28 assists and 60 digs. But a number of missed serves and balls hit into the net hurt the Cougars.
Lilly Hamburg led the Cougars with 11 kills and four blocks with Peyton Walker putting down four kills and three blocks. Carly Nehus and McKenzie Deatherage tallied six kills each.
“I was thinking this game would boil down to what I would call pride and pressure,” said Douglas Rabe, Conner head coach. “Obviously, Ryle has a lot of pride with the streak in beating Conner. I just think our girls let the pressure get to them. We didn’t serve-receive as well as we did in the past and I think that kind of kept Lilly and Peyton from being able to dominate like they typically do.”
Anna Hamilton and Maddie Leiprecht consistently hustled after balls digging up 14 and 12, respectively. Aubrey Depenbrock and Jordan Ransdell had 13 and seven assists, respectively.
The first game stayed tight initially. Deatherage landed a block kill to put Conner up 9-7. Ryle rattled off three in a row to go up 14-11 and extended it to 20-13. Ryle finished it when Griffin landed a kill.
The second game also stayed tight until Ryle used a 5-0 run to go up 14-9. Trapp had two kills and Olivia Karlosky landed an ace during the run before Jordan Potter broke it with a block.
Ryle used a 5-0 run later in the game to go up 23-13. The Raiders won it when Conner hit the ball out of bounds.
Ryle did run off eight in a row in the third game to go up 12-4. But Conner fought back to trim it to 17-16 when Walker landed a block kill.
“Every time we called a timeout, we talked about just wanting to win is not enough,” Rabe said. “In our head, what are we thinking and what is it that we need to make as far as adjustments. Are we moving enough to the ball? Are we getting our hips right? It’s more of A,B,C,D in order to get the outcome that you want.”
Ryle senior Merisa Workman responded with two kills and Griffin landed an ace to put Ryle up 20-17. It went back and forth from there. Ryle won it when Conner committed a net violation.
“That was really good,” Lovins said. “(Workman) was nice and composed. That was one thing we had worked with her about keeping her elbow high and getting it in. She did a great job.”
Conner plays at Highlands (2-2) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Ryle plays again Wednesday at home against undefeated Great Crossing (6-0) at 7:30 p.m.