Neuqua Valley spreads the wealth

One of Neuqua Valley's strengths all year has been a balanced attack.

On Tuesday the host Wildcats boys volleyball team led by three hitters with 7 kills each defeated Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division rival Metea Valley 30-28, 25-15.

"Last year we had to rely on Austin Neace," said Neuqua Valley coach Erich Mendoza. "But this year is different. We're good across the board. We have a lot of guys who can get kills for us."

Against Metea (7-16, 0-4) Neace shared the lead in kills with middle hitter Brian McKissick and right side Connor Hounsell.

Tonight, everything went well," Neace said. "We got the middles involved in the offense and our blocking was really strong."

McKissick, who has been a virtual wall at the net this season, had 10 blocks and Hounsell added 6.

"Brian has been so consistent for us on offense and defense," Mendoza said. "He is by far our leader in blocks."

One area of the game that Mendoza is not happy with is serve-receive.

"We have so many good hitters," Mendoza said, "that we can get the kill if we get a halfway decent pass to the setter."

The coach was not happy with the passing in the first game on Tuesday when the Wildcats (16-13, 3-1) led 15-11 but couldn't hold the lead due mainly to some inconsistent passing.

The feisty Mustangs caught them at 17-17 and took the lead on a kill by John Lynch.

There were nine ties after that before Hounsell put the game away with a kill.

"We've improved our serve-receive since the beginning of the year," Neace said, "but we still have a long way to go."

With better serve-receive in Game 2, the Wildcats took a 12-6 lead and never looked back.

Mike Romano led Neuqua in digs with 7 and Justin Martin added 5. Jack Dentzman and Tim Paschal, who split the setter duties, had 9 assists apiece.

Tom Wieland led the Mustangs with 8 kills and Alec McKinney had 5. Wieland and Jordan Hawk had 6 digs each and Jason Bernier set for 11 assists.

"We played well in the first game," said Metea coach John Aister. "But down the stretch they made a couple of big points and we made a couple of mistakes that killed us."

The coach thought his young team suffered a little bit of a letdown after losing that close first game 30-28.

"Coming out for Game 2 we didn't play with the energy we did in Game 1," Aister said. "We've struggled with inconsistency all year. Neuqua was swinging aggressively and getting balls down on the floor before we could get to them. We're not a good blocking team."