All-around approach carries Meade, Carmel past St. Viator

There's nothing quite like a setter who can also hit a volleyball.

You know, those little dump shots over the net.

At Carmel Catholic, the setter in this case is senior Morgan Meade. The question does come up, though. Is she a hitter first, and a setter second?

After all there are no dump shots in player's reportoire. No, she just pounds the ball.

On Tuesday night in the Carmel gym, Meade had 9 assists and a team-high 8 kills. The 20th win of the season took awhile to wrap up because of a defensive-minded club from St. Viator.

Meade's serving ace helped break open the first set as Carmel stopped the Lions 25-19, 25-11.

"We started out slowly today,'' Meade said. "We have a lot of talent but we still work hard every day. We are a big family."

Carmel coach Dave Pazely noted Meade is a captain of this Corsairs team.

"She is getting better and better,'' Pazely said. "She has carried us for a few nights."

Set one was anyone's for the taking. Although the Lions (17-8-1) couldn't produce much of an offense, its defense kept the set close. No one opened much of a lead as this set was knotted up at 9-9. And then Meade went into serve. Gracie Schofield followed with an ace and an Izzy Smith kill gave Carmel some breathing room at 17-11.

"Our defense was good tonight,'' said St. Viator coach Charlie Curtin. "But we struggled to put the ball away. Carmel is a good team. They have Schofield, who is dominant, and their libero (Sierra Kepski) touches everything."

Set two wasn't close. Elizabeth Tworek opened the serving for Carmel (20-4). Meade added a kill as the Carmel lead reached 9-3. The Carmel crowd was also treated by a kill and block from the team's other setter, Grace Butler.

While Schofield supplied 6 kills, fellow senior, Allie Wayland added 4 kills.

"Allie made an amazing cut shot,'' Pazely said.

The Lions had a last gasp with Grace Fedus serving. St. Viator took advantage of a few Carmel errors and added a Fedus ace to cut the margin to 17-10.

Pazely was impressed with St. Viator's defense.

"That's a good defensive team,'' he said. "They were in the right spots."

Kepski's serving helped open a big working margin for Carmel. She had help from kills from Meade and Schofield. Meade was next on the serving line and she ended the match. Both Schofield and Taylor Luhr registered kills.

Butler led the serving with 11 assists, and Kepski notched 10 digs.