Edgewood coach Jill Richter thought for just a second before saying no.
“We had hot fudge cake from Frisch’s before we played,” Richter said with a smile after the Cougars improved to 7-15 with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-12, 25-20) win.
However, not all the Edgewood players indulged in the dessert following a team meal.
“I thought it would slow me down,” sophomore Madison Asher said after making the Big Blue (4-18) pay with quick sets out of the middle and a floating blocking style that gave hitters fits most of the night.
In the first game, the two teams battled through five ties and seven lead changes before the Cougars used a four-point run — two HHS hitting errors, a kill by Ally Williams and an ace by Asher — to take control.
“We always seem to have first-game jitters,” Richter said. “We just had to play our game and get focused and ready to roll.”
Hamilton got as close as 16-14 on a block by Dede Rodriguez and Savannah Conrad, but could not get any closer, dropping the first game on a net serve.
“We were a little slow at first,” said Asher, who finished with 15 kills and six blocks. “We just got more calm and started to play together. Once we played together more, it made us more confident.”
Edgewood jumped to a 9-0 lead in Game 2 on the serving of Williams and built a 23-9 lead.
“The second game, we didn’t have nearly as much heart and passion on the floor as we did the first game,” Hamilton coach Madison Dodd said. “We are going to face adversity, and winners build off it. We had six girls who this was their last time playing for the school and I asked them if they wanted their legacy to be what they did in the second game, and it brought more out of them.”
Big Blue responded with a quick 2-1 lead in the third game, but Asher and Williams took over at the net, Asher on the quicks and Williams from the outside, to give Edgewood a 7-3 lead.
HHS tied the game three times, the last at 10-10, but hitting errors helped Edgewood build the lead to 20-13 before Hamilton made a mini-run to trim it to 22-20 on a kill by Emilie Sauerwein.
Asher got Edgewood to game point on a kill and Ryanne Kotte closed it out with an ace.
“You always get a little nervous at the end,” Asher said. “But when we come together as a team, we work better and communicate better and come out with it.”
Edgewood will face second-seeded Mount Notre Dame at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Ursuline.
Tribe battles through: For the second time in a week, Fairfield had to look across the net at Princeton.
After cruising to a three-set win in the Greater Miami Conference match Oct. 13, the Indians had to battle a little bit to take a 3-0 (25-10, 26-24, 25-22) triumph in Monday’s nightcap at Ursuline.
After taking a 16-0 lead in the first game, Fairfield had to battle back from a 14-1 deficit to win Game 2. The Indians trailed again in Game 3 by a 22-19 margin, but ran off the final six points to secure the win.
Fairfield will face No. 16 Kings on 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Ursuline.
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