The Miami Trace Lady Panthers varsity volleyball team accomplished a historic milestone in the program’s history Thursday night.
The Washington Lady Lions visited Miami Trace High School for a Frontier Athletic Conference match.
Miami Trace had already clinched an outright conference championship with a win at Hillsboro Tuesday evening.
Thursday, the Lady Panthers finished the conference with a 3-0 win over Washington, running the table in the FAC, going 10-0. Miami Trace is now 16-0 overall.
Scores of the sets were: 25-20, 25-17 and 25-9.
Head coach Doug Mace deferred to his five seniors and had them each speak with the Record-Herald after the match.
“We are super proud of ourselves,” Chloe Scott said. “Last year we changed everything mentally with our whole entire program. Those seniors last year that we had basically set everything up that we’ve been able to achieve this year. We miss them.
“We’ve worked hard,” Scott said. “We got cut off in the summer for a little bit. We came back and worked as hard as we could. We had Saturday practices, early in the morning we got in the gym. We worked out, not only in here, but we would do stuff together off the court as a team. We really just pushed ourselves as much as we could.
“We’re so glad we got to achieve this,” Scott said. “The first time ever (an undefeated and outright championship) at Miami Trace.”
“It’s amazing, it really is,” Delaney Eakins said. “We’re just like family. I am so glad to have completed this with them. I’m super proud of all of us. We are definitely a team; everyone of us contributed to this.”
It’s unbelievable,” Saylor Moore said. “I am so proud of the team that we have become this season. We’ve all worked up to this moment individually. I am proud of each and every one of us. It’s just unbelievable.
“I think that we came out and executed really well,” Piper Grooms said. “We’ve been working for this moment forever. We just played the best that we could.”
“This was really our whole goal this season,” Olivia Fliehman said. “Not only to win league outright — it was kind of bitter last year — still the first league (title) our program’s ever had, but it was tied.
“Being able to win it outright was fun and then now is the first time we’ve won it undefeated, 10-0, that was really our goal,” Fliehman said. “We came in here (tonight) and played well. I’m just really proud of all the girls.”
“I’m just very proud of what the girls did,” Mace said. “For volleyball, it’s our first outright championship and we did it undefeated. We’re extremely proud of what the girls just did. It took 40-some years to do it, so, we’ll be very excited and proud about this.”
“We’ve faced a lot of adversity this week,” Washington head coach Ashley DeAtley said. “We’ve just been trying to fill in some places where we are missing a couple of our stronger players these last couple of weeks. It’s been a tough thing for us to adapt to.
“I felt like the girls came out in the first couple of sets and kept it kind of close,” DeAtley said. “They were trying to find the holes (in Miami Trace’s defense). (Miami Trace) changed up their defense and they just took off and that’s what good teams do. Doug does a good job of making sure his girls are prepared and coming forth and making sure they are attacking and being aggressive.
“Definitely hats off to them,” DeAtley said. “That is a great accomplishment, knowing what they did a couple of years ago when they only had four wins the whole season. And they’ve been able to turn it around. That is a major thing, especially for Miami Trace volleyball.”
Miami Trace has three more regular season games prior to the tournament.
Saturday, Miami Trace hosts East Clinton at 10 a.m.
The Lady Panthers are at Zane Trace Monday at 5 p.m. and at Leesburg Fairfield Saturday, Oct. 17 at 11 a.m.
The Lady Lions (6-9 overall, 5-4 in the FAC) are at Unioto Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and home against Westfall Monday at 5 p.m. Washington has a conference match remaining at Chillicothe on Thursday, Oct. 15.
In the junior-varsity match Thursday, Miami Trace finished 10-0 in the FAC with a 25-12, 25-18 win over Washington. Miami Trace is now 14-1 overall.
In the freshman match that began the evening, Miami Trace won, 25-12, 17-25, 25-21. Miami Trace is 4-4 overall.
