
BY JEREMY SCHNEIDER | MIRROR SPORTS — Already as a freshman and sophomore, Camy Wedge was obviously a good volleyball player.
With more pressure on her as a junior, both on the court and off as a leader, Wedge has exceeded expectations. She’s averaging nearly twice as many assists per set as the previous two years, while her blocks, kills and digs per set are all up as well.
Her performance is also showing up in the Maumee record books. Wedge crested the 1,000 career assist mark against Bowling Green last Thursday. She sat at 1,010 assists following the loss to the Bobcats.
“For Camy to reach that milestone this early in the season is just a testament to the kind of setter she is and the kind of setter she’s developing into,” said Panthers coach Lindsay Vannett.
“I’ve been watching her stats pretty close and she’s well on her way to exceeding what she’s done in the past. We’re going to see even more out of her than we thought we could.”
Wedge’s milestone was a silver lining in what was an otherwise difficult week for Maumee, which fell to 2-5 overall and 1-3 in the Northern Lakes League with losses to Northview (3-0) and BG (3-2).
The final score against the NLL-favorite Wildcats might be deceiving. The Panthers had a chance to win the first set before losing 27-25 and Northview followed with wins of 25-14 and 26-24.
Jolie Sobb had a balanced game with 12 kills and 12 digs, both team highs. Katelyn Owens added 11 digs, three kills and two blocks; and Avery Lewis had six kills and two blocks.
The loss to Bowling Green two nights later might have been a little more difficult to stomach. Maumee easily won the first set 25-13 but dropped the next two sets, 25-20 and 25-17. The Panthers forced a fifth set with a 25-15 win in set four, but BG held on for a 15-13 set win.
“That first set, we came out and just took it to them. We just backed off and had an ‘oh crap’ moment,” Vannett said. “We didn’t make the adjustments that we talked about in the huddle and they did.
“They made the exact adjustments we talked about and we were too late in picking them up. It kind of destroyed our energy and our confidence through the second and third sets.”
Sobb had a monster game with 27 kills and 26 digs, while Owens had 18 kills, 16 digs and three assists. Josie Vargo had 18 digs.
Wedge totaled 49 assists and 15 digs against BG to go along with 20 assists and seven digs against Northview. She’s averaging 8.3 assists per set through the first seven matches of the season.
“I couldn’t be happier with the leader she’s turned into,” Vannett said. “She’s taken to her training and all the time learning from her predecessors, who worked day in and day out with her the last two seasons and she’s running with it. It’s made our team that much better.”