Carson Francis, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by Holzer Health System.
FRANKFORT — Back on Sept. 1, Unioto dropped a four-setter to Adena on its home floor.
The loss started the Shermans’ conference slate and dropped the team’s overall record to 2-3.
But after that, Unioto (10-3, 7-1 SVC) has flipped a switch, looking dominant on the hardwood since.
By the time the Shermans entered their second meeting with Adena on Thursday evening, they had all the momentum after rounding off seven straight wins.
And, despite falling behind 2-1 in the match, they rallied to take a five-set victory over the Warriors — the program’s first since 2023 — to remain tied with Southeastern atop the SVC standings.
“We’ve kind of talked about it on a weekly basis, because there is a lot talked about in the SVC in who’s at the top. But we’re kind of blocking it out and taking it night by night,” Unioto head coach Gavin Patterson said. “We know it’s starting over, this was game one of the first round, and [Adena] were the ones that got us, so we wanted nothing more than to come in here and get revenge.”
Adena (7-8, 4-4 SVC) got off to a red-hot start, however, courtesy of Jacey Jones. The junior posted four kills in the match’s first six serves to put the Warriors ahead 5-1 in the earlygoing.
The Warriors then built the lead to 19-11 before Unioto rallied and cut the deficit to 21-18, forcing Adena to burn a timeout. That allowed the Warriors to regroup and close out the set on a 4-1 spurt, taking the opening set by a 25-19 count.
Unioto knew it needed its front row to find a rhythm to even the set count, and it found just that in the early stages of the second.
After falling behind 2-0, Unioto’s Charlotte Dennis, Kinzli Batson and Emma Spetnagel each chipped in with two kills to go alongside a Kiley Puckett ace to quickly put themselves ahead 7-3.
Adena rallied back to tie the set at 10-10, and later took a 16-13 lead. But the Shermans stayed focused and paced the set from there. Dennis posted seven kills after just two in the first game, while Batson, Jordyn Stark and Libby Anderson all connected for aces from the service line to help Unioto fight to a 25-21 win.
“I know my team relies on me. If I’m down, they’re down, and if I’m up, we’re up,” Dennis said. “Knowing my team, we all need to be up, so I was like, ‘I gotta get these kills, I gotta get these points, I gotta help my team get the momentum,’ because if we don’t have momentum, we kind of get down. So I had to make sure we had to work as a team, because when we do that, we do amazing and we get wins like this.”
But following a Unioto run to end the second, Adena used a quick spark to start the third on a run of its own.
After a Unioto attacking error, Jacey Jones and Gabby Francis connected for kills that went along with a Kortney Sowers service ace to put the Warriors quickly ahead 4-0.
Adena then put together a 13-8 lead before back-to-back kills from Dennis, and a Batson ace, helped Unioto cut the deficit to 13-11. The Shermans would tie the set at 16-16. But not to be outdone, Adena closed out the set on a 9-1 run that was capped off by a Sherman attacking error, taking a 2-1 match lead.
Although its back was against the wall, Unioto showed no sign of panic whatsoever.
The two teams went back and forth on their way to a 4-4 tie to begin the fourth, but three straight Adena errors gave Unioto a three-point lead before Dennis made a block for a kill, extending the lead to 8-4.
From there, Unioto built leads of 15-8, 18-11 and 22-15, and never looked back, forcing a winner-take-all fifth set with a 25-19 victory in the fourth.
In that fifth set, the game plan was the same on both sides — feed the hot hand.
Unioto’s Dennis and Adena’s Jacey Jones exchanged the first four points of the set to bring the set to a 2-2 tie. Francis gave Adena the lead before Dennis and Jones again exchanged points to make it 4-4.
Stark would then serve up back-to-back aces before Kaylee Sever connected on a free ball attempt, forcing Adena to burn a timeout with the Shermans ahead 7-4. Unioto grew the lead to 10-7 before a Jacey Jones kill and a Unioto attacking error cut it to 10-9, bringing the Shermans into a timeout.
Evelyn Ramsey would slam down an overpass to tie the set at 10, but once again, the Shermans responded and rose to the occasion. After Dennis and Ramsey exchanged points, Dennis and Kara Spetnagel would put the Shermans two points away with back-to-back kills.
Emma Spetnagel served an ace to make it 14-11 and an attacking error kept Adena alive for one more point before Dennis slammed the door with her 28th kill of the match, wrapping up a five-set win over the Warriors.
“When you’re at Unioto, in the SVC, you get everyone’s best. We’ve talked about that, and last year we were kind of in the battle with Adena for that league title, so it’s not something that we’re unfamiliar with,” Patterson said. “But again, it’s something that we don’t want to put a whole lot of focus on and steer clear of the message, and just take it game by game.”
Following Dennis’ stellar performance was Kori Grubbs, who finished with 19 kills. Puckett led the way on defense for the Shermans with 25 digs, while Batson dished out a season-high 55 assists on the evening.
Adena will look to get back on track with a trip to Zane Trace on Tuesday evening. Meanwhile, Unioto will look to defend its home court that same night against Paint Valley.
“I’ve said it a ton all season. It’s not going to be pretty at times. We’re young, and even our older kids are a little bit inexperienced,” Patterson said. “So we’ve got a lot of growing to do this year, and whether it takes three, four or five sets, it doesn’t matter as long as we’re walking out with a win.”
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