BLOCKING — Big Red’s Analese Perdue and Alaina Vrable go up to block an attempt by Harrison Central’s Nadia Tweedy during Wednesday’s match. - Mike Hughes

CADIZ — Steubenville Big Red entered Wednesday night’s road contest with Harrison Central down one of its two setters in Sarah Allen.

Her absence necessitated a switch up in strategy, leaving the majority of setting responsibility in the capable hands of junior Carmen Nocera. It also forced Big Red’s top hitters to approach their own games differently.

Fortunately for the Crimson and Black, the trio of Tori Mitchell, Te’jah Montgomery, and Analesa Perdue were up to the challenge, as they were able to hit through block attempts and find angles to score points.

The result was a straight-set victory against the Huskies, 25-18, 25-10, 25-13.

“They performed well,” said Big Red head coach Logan Colabella as her team improved to 4-6. “We were missing one of our settings and the girls adjusted.

“We usually run a 6-2, but we had to run a 5-1 (formation) and they did a wonderful job adjusting to how we needed to play.”

The visitors took the first set 25-18 when a block attempt ricocheted out of bounds for Big Red’s 25th point.

Harrison was competitive early, keeping up with Steubenville. But the second set got off to a rocky start.

Mitchell banged home multiple kills coupled with a well-timed poke over top the front-line blockers by Nocera.

By the time the Huskies scored their first point of the set, the score read 9-1. The second came at 11-2.

But the third didn’t come until a Big Red hitting error brought the score to 21-3.

That error ended a string of 10 straight points from the visitors, the last two of which were the results of strong attacks from Montgomery.

Another big key working in Big Red’s favor was the defensive play of Mitchell at the net. The team’s leading attacker, the senior is also a capable shot blocker and that ability accounted for a number of blocks and even more hitting errors for HC.

In short, Huskies’ hitters were trying to hit around or over Mitchell and were either hitting long, wide, or into the net. If not, the ball was sent screaming back off Mitchell’s outstretched hands into the HC side of the court.

“She does a good job of forcing people to hit around her,” Colabella said. “Sometimes they hit into the net or sometimes they hit out.

“She does a very good job of defending.”

Harrison Central didn’t give up, and behind seven kills by AnnMarie Corder, the Huskies finally scored some points in the second set before falling 25-10.

The final set was tied at 6-6 before Big Red started to pull away because of strong defensive play and hitting errors.

Olivia Tonkovich had 17 assists for HC and Julia Doty led the way with six points. Senior Maddy Butler drew applause from the home crowd multiple times showing disregard for her body and diving toward the floor to save balls that appeared all but destined to hit the floor.

Harrison’s hitters were able to land successful attacks on occasion, but more often than not, those attacks landed deep or into the net.

Head coach Ray Hibbs declined to comment following the match.

Big Red next hosts a tri-match with Oak Glen and Edison and Colabella is hoping her team may be finally turning the corner.

“All of the games we’ve lost have been close,” she noted. “We lost a couple 25-23. We just have a problem finishing. If we did, our record might be different. But we are learning and we were able to finish (Wednesday).”