Girls volleyball: Lorain beats Keystone for fifth straight win

LAGRANGE — Lorain extended its win streak to five games Saturday, beating Keystone in straight sets, 25-15, 25-14, 25-14.The win continued a strong season for the Titans, who are 12-5 on the year after beginning the season with back-to-back losses."We played really clean volleyball," Lorain coach Capreece Irby said. "We always knew it was in them, but in the beginning of the season, we had a lot of kinks to work out. But now we've got our rotations down, the chemistry is built and they're confident."One player who performed with tremendous confidence Saturday was Jayla King, who led the team with 14 kills, including a run of seven straight in the second set that put Lorain in firm command."I felt really good," the sophomore said. "I had a little bit of an off game yesterday, so it felt good to get better."While King's offense was excellent, it was far from the only thing that Irby was impressed with Saturday."Jayla is a leader," Irby said. "To be so young and to be able to be so consistent, she never gets in her head. She has a short-term memory, and I think her teammates are able to feed off of that confidence."The other standouts for Lorain were Ci'Ana Armelin, who trailed only King with eight kills, and Ava Miller, who led the team with 11 assists and eight aces.The most important thing for the Titans, however, was their lack of mistakes and their consistent play through all three sets, never allowing the Wildcats to get a foothold in the match."We're just stacking the days," Irby said. "Talent-wise, we always knew we had it, but with those reps and those fundamentals, we've been preaching the same things day in and day out. It makes me happy to see it all finally come together."After Saturday's dominant win, Lorain has just five more games, with four of those coming in the Greater Cleveland Conference, three of which are against teams currently below them in the conference standings.For Keystone, Saturday's loss was its seventh in a row and 11th in its last 12. It has only won one set in this seven-game losing streak, but this season was always going to be about building for a roster that has the same number of freshmen as it does juniors and seniors combined."We're young," Wildcats coach Jeff Schaef said. "We've got five freshmen, and they're coming along. Some of them had very little volleyball experience coming into the year, and they're definitely growing, but it's going to take some time."The Wildcats have just four games remaining, but their next one is against Clearview, a team they have already beaten this season, although winning is far from the only thing Schaef is worried about as the season winds down."We need to change our attitudes a little bit," he said. "We need to start having more fun versus focusing so much on winning. We need to actually focus on becoming more of a team."Contact William Cunningham at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.Lorain 25-25-25, Keystone 15-14-14KILLS: (L) Ci'Ana Armelin 8, Juliana Dimacchia 2, Janaeshia Washington 3, Damaya Clayton 4, Janelle Butler 2, Jayla King 14; (K) Kinsley Goran 3, Bella Duelley 2, Katie Linebrink 3, Kendall Crabeels 4, Makenzie Miller 2, Mia Stefan 1.DIGS: (L) Washington 1, Dasani Smalls 1; (K) Ava Armitage 1.ASSISTS: (L) Ava Miller 11, Washington 1, Nia Carter 2, Jaila Kirksey 6; (K) Stefan 6, Brooke Senghas 5.ACES: (L) Armelin 1, Miller 7, Jesenia Baez 1, Kirksey 1, Butler 1; (K) Crabeels 1, Logan Webb 1.BLOCK-KILLS: (L) Telaya Lusane 1.