In a dominant showing at home on Tuesday night, the Lady Eagles swept Choctaw 25-18, 25-20, 25-21, a stark reversal from the five-set duel to the finish two weeks ago, to secure the in-season sweep over the Lady Indians.
“I’m feeling good. Choctaw’s a great team, they played great defense tonight, they had some heavy hitters, I’m happy our team was able to capitalize against a good team,” Head Coach Karson Jessup said.
From the opening serve in the first set, Niceville took control, quickly jumping out on a 10-1 run. Choctaw clawed back into the set with a run of its own, highlighted by a solid block from Khloe Brockett, but the Lady Eagles seemed to always have an answer. Behind strong play from hitters Kate Jannazo, Riley Skowronski and Claire Ivey, Niceville finished off the opening set 25-18.
“Riley’s doing well. She’s swinging high and swinging hard,” Jessup said.
“We wanted to come into this game and sweep them, and beat them better than we beat them last time since we felt like we shouldn’t have gone to five with them last time,” Skowronski added.
The second set proved to be a back-and-forth battle. The Lady Indians started strong behind a kill from Annabeth Bexley, and two straight Niceville attacks out of bounds gave Choctaw an early 3-0 lead. A Choctaw attack out of bounds and a block from Ivey put the Lady Eagles back in it, and Aprille Trotter came up with a big dig for Niceville that resulted in a point.
Choctaw answered with a point off a Niceville ball out and a block from Janiya Brown, but the Lady Eagles soon went on a 4-0 run behind a kill from Skowronski, a block from Ivey and two kills from Shelby Plasier. From there, the set returned to a back-and-forth affair as both teams traded kills. Jannazo and Skowronski took over down the stretch, and Gianna Vignali added several blocks as Niceville took the set 25-20.
In the third set, the Lady Indians came out on fire. Brown opened with a block and Caroline Walker added a kill, helping spark a 6-1 Choctaw run as the Lady Indians capitalized on several Niceville errors.
Skowronski stepped up again, as she did all match, but the real story of the third set was Abby Swierzbin. Swierzbin, who has played a reserve role this season, had the game of her life, finishing with four kills and two blocks in the third set alone as Niceville erased the Choctaw run and pulled away for a 25-21 win to secure the in-season sweep.
“We like to call our subs game changers. She definitely shifted the momentum to where it needed to be, and it’s great,” Jessup said.
“It’s just interesting to see how one person can just change a whole team on the court and on the bench,” Swierzbin added.
Niceville (18-3) hosts Navarre on Thursday, and Choctaw (11-6) hosts Arnold on Thursday.
