LIBERTY FINDS VICTORY IN ANOTHER FIVE SET THRILLER

LIBERTY OH- Tuesday night action saw the Liberty Leopards play host to the Newton Falls Tigers in their second home game of the season. Liberty took control of the action early in the first set of the night getting out to a double-digit lead behind a strong performance from Lexi Muck and Mia Parker who looked like they might be the best duo in the region after set one. Liberty would come out on top 25-15 and continued to capitalize on every Tigers mishap in set two in which they would again get out to a large lead and win 25-19 after the Tigers had a late rally that almost made things interesting. Going into set three the Tigers had not held a lead for the entire game, and it looked like the Leopards would get their second 3-0 sweep at home this season. That was not to be as the Tigers kept it close thanks to some great plays from Natalee Albert, Brooke Stiffler, and Lily Sait who trailed the Leopards 16-14 before putting up 8 straight unanswered points to take their first lead of the night. The Leopards fought back and made it interesting but the big lead for the Tigers was too much to overcome as Newton Falls would take set 3 26-24.

Here’s where the night got very interesting. The Leopards had led all night long and looked like the better team up until late in the third set. The Tigers kept it close to start off set four and would take an early lead that they again would not surrender, and they took home the fourth set 25-21 over Liberty. So now going into the fifth set after Liberty won the first two and Newton Falls won the last two, momentum seemed on the side of the Tigers as they would for the first time win the first point of the set before Liberty went on one final run to seal the night led again by Lexi Muck who put up epic numbers on the night. The Leopards final run in the fifth set put away the Tigers 15-8.

Liberty took home their first win in MVAC Gray Tier play and advanced to (3-2) on the season and will host the Garfield Lady G-Men on Thursday. Meanwhile a hard-fought contest for the Tigers ultimately leads them to a 1-3 start as they return home for just the second time this season to host the undefeated Crestview Lady Rebels on Thursday.

*Contributed By YSN’s Alek Koberna