Ashley Koppinger is used to taking over volleyball matches.
The Our Redeemer's Christian School senior outside hitter - all-state a year ago - was at it again Tuesday night and rocketing serves and shots past Velva hitters.
Koppinger's 13 kills and eight aces, along with 22 combined assists from the setter tandem of junior Brooke Knutson and eighth-grader Morgan Olson, propelled the Knights (6-1) to an easy 25-12, 25-11, 25-15 victory.
"It's easy to spike when you've been given a good vertical and stuff," Koppinger said. "That helps a lot."
Velva (3-3) hung with ORCS for most of the first set, clawing to within two at 14-12. The Knights then scored 11 points in a row, 10 with Koppinger serving, to win the set.
It was one of many long runs for ORCS. Seven times throughout the night they scored at least four points in a row, including a 13-1 stretch in the first set. Seemingly any time the Aggies got close, the Knights held them back.
"We try to stop from them getting closer," Knutson said. "But it kinda happens like that. And then we kinda put our heads down and decide that, yeah, we need to pull through this."
There were fourteen aces in the match, every one of them by the Knights.
At one point in the 11-0 first-set run, Koppinger hit four in five points.
"Just power and control, mostly," Olson said of her team's serving. "Since Ashley can get so high when she jumps, she can really get it over the net."
Said coach Sherry Carlson: "We made like four errors right off the bat and then we talked about it. And after that, then they just started getting their serves in consistently and actually (started) going for the aces and (started) turning over some aces. ... That really builds momentum. Aces always do."
Senior outside hitter Billie Bangen was the most effective Knight at returning Velva attacks. She had 13 of ORCS's 42 digs.
Senior setter Kjerstie Fevold and senior right-side hitter Jaylen Newman had 18 assists and five kills, respectively, to lead the Aggies.
ORCS travels to Trinity Christian on Thursday.