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PAW PAW — Visiting Niles put a damper on host Paw Paw’s Senior Night by sweeping the Red Wolves 25-22, 25-20, 25-10 Thursday in a Wolverine Conference volleyball matchup. 

The win improves Vince Strefling’s Vikings to 4-3 in the league and 19-12 overall. Paw Paw falls to 1-6 in the league.

“Paw Paw is a good volleyball team. Tonight we had some big lucky streaks with our serving. We are still getting ready for districts,” said Niles head coach Vince Strefling.  

Except for a 14-9 Niles lead at one point, the opening game was tightly contested. 

The Red Wolves would eventually pull within a single point of Niles on two occasions at 15-14 and 20-19.

Niles reeled off two straight points, including an ace by Neriah Stephens to increase the Vikings lead to 22-19. 

Paw Paw’s AJ Rickli came up with a kill to pull her team back within two, 22-20. 

But the Vikings never let the Red Wolves get any closer than two points. Niles closed out the game by taking advantage of two missed Paw Paw serves and an from Viking senior Bree Lake. 

Paw Paw came out fighting hard in the second game and led by six points, 12-6, after Kailey Nichols’ kill. But the Vikings clawed their way back and eventually tied the game at 15-15 on Tanaya Brown’s kill. 

The Red Wolves regained the lead at 19-18 on successive kills from Raegan Zach and Victoria Lopez. 

Niles, however, closed out the game off five straight service points from Ellie Bradley, including a pair of aces. Stephens had two kills while Lake and Nyla Hover had one each during that stretch. 

Paw Paw got its final point of the game on a missed serve. Niles won the game to go up 2-0 following another Red Wolves’ missed serve.

Niles wasted little time in jumping out to an eventual 14-point cusion (18-4) following a Stephens’ kill in game three.

Lake stepped up late in the game and recorded three consecutive points off her serve, including one ace, to finish out the game and match. 

A big key in the last game for Niles was the serving of Riley Grishaber who served nine consecutive Viking points.

Strefling also utilized two different liberos, Maddie Zache and Bradley, during the match. 

“That works out well and it gives us a little more push before we start districts here in another week or so. It will be interesting to see who steps up for us,” Strefling said. 

“I think the energy that Ellie brings is a big boost for us whereas Maddie reads the ball more consistently. It’s nice to have that kind of combination. I also thought our outside hitters Bree Lake and Nyla Hover were strong tonight. We have one quad left before districts so we will just continue working on our serve-receive. Our girls do a really great job of scouting other teams as well.”

Hover topped the Vikings’ attack with nine kills, while Lake finished with seven. Setter Kaydence Jacobs stuffed the stat sheet with 20 assists to go with three aces.