Volleyball: Flyers undefeated as they reach the midway point

Press Contributing Writer
sports@presspublications.com

Last season, the Lake Flyers won the Northern Buckeye Conference title for the second year in a row and came excruciatingly close to advancing to regionals before losing in five sets to Defiance Tinora in a Division III district final.
If Lake’s performance at this point is any indicator, bigger things could be in store for the club. Two of the team’s goals before the season were to win the conference and a district championship.
The Flyers are 12-0 and 7-0 in the league and have been incredibly dominant, losing just four sets this season.
There are usually at least three factors at play when a team is playing at a high level — talented athletes, good coaching and team chemistry.
“I think we are playing so well because the kids have bought into the team concept,” said eighth-year coach Amy Vorst. “We have a balanced, well-rounded team that likes to compete.
“I think our success has come from our players’ dedication to the sport. The majority of our girls play volleyball year-round on national-level, club teams in the area. We had two players cut their summer vacations short and fly home by themselves in order to compete with our team. Our girls are very committed to each other and this team,” she said.
Making this even more impressive is the fact that Lake lost four key players — a very accomplished quartet — from last year’s squad. Cassidey Wiley is playing volleyball at Wheeling University (WV) and Phoebe Scott is playing volleyball at Adrian College (MI) while Lani Robinson is set to play college basketball at Madonna University (MI) and Abbie Rymers is set to play softball at Grace College (IN).
Lake’s most impressive wins are over Clay (3-2), Springfield (3-1), Eastwood (3-1) and Ottawa-Glandorf (3-0).
“Beating the higher-division schools is always a great accomplishment, along with defeating Ottawa-Glandorf and our league rival, Eastwood,” said Vayda Delventhal. “So far we are off to a great start, and I hope we can keep that going.”
Taryn DeWese, the All-Press Player of the Year in 2021, gave her two cents.
“Ottawa-Glandorf was the biggest win for us this year,” she said. “They are a really solid team and we played really well together in that game and it just showed us and everyone else how good we really are.”
Delventhal and DeWese are the two setters on the team, Sydney Stanley is the lone libero and Kiera Magers is the only middle blocker. Ella Vorst and Maura Deutschman are the middle hitters, Sydney Brown, Sydney Marchetto, Mallory Wineland and Kylee Pietrzak are the defensive specialists and Skyler Foster and Zoe Ager are the right-side hitters.
Vorst, Foster and Ager are the three seniors.
“We have a really good libero, Sydney Stanley and our lefty right side, Zoe Ager and our other right side, Skyer Foster, are adding a lot of offense to our team,” DeWese said. “Our middles, Keira Magers and Ella Vorst, bring a lot of offense and do really well blocking. Delventhal and Sydney Brown bring a lot of defense for our team as well.”
DeWese leads the team in kills with 148, and Vorst has 144. Delventhal has 241 assists, followed by DeWese, who has 175. And Stanley leads the team with 192 digs while Delventhal has 148.