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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Holy Redeemer found itself in a battle, pushed in each of the first three sets by Wyoming Valley West.</p><p>Yet, as they&#8217;ve done in the past, the Royals found a way to brush back another stern test.</p><p>Skylar Osenkarski had a match-high 14 kills to pace the Royals to a 3-1 victory in a Wyoming Valley Conference matchup Tuesday night.</p><p>Set scores were 25-20, 27-25, 23-25 and 25-11. Redeemer improves to 2-0 in league play, while Tuesday was the opener for the Spartans.</p><p>&#8220;People are talking about Redeemer and our experience, but most of these players are in spots where they didn&#8217;t play last year,&#8221; Royals coach Jack Kablick said. &#8220;Now, they have to become prime-time hitters because we lost two good attackers in Amanda Curcio and Brynn Kukosky. Things have changed, and now they are learning to adapt to those new roles.&#8221;</p><p>Yes, it&#8217;s a rare occurrence &#8212; the state-ranked Royals being pushed at home in a gymnasium where dominance has been a way of life in the past decade.</p><p>That&#8217;s probably why it came as a shock to some as Valley West jumped out to a 10-1 lead to start the second set and was tied at 25-25 late with a chance to even the match at 1-1.</p><p>Call it a gut-check for Redeemer. A moment to see if the junior-driven Royals could find their poise and gain valuable experience in terms of battling back with grit, energy and leadership.</p><p>And it took everyone. Attacks by Osenkarski, Samantha Carr and Sarah Liskowicz. Strong serves from Sarah Kuderka, Julia Andrejko, Korren Hicks and Maddie Guido.</p><p>A contribution by every Royal on the court to battle back from a 10-1 deficit and another late hole, 20-15.</p><p>&#8220;I believe that we can learn from a match like this,&#8221; Osenkarski said. &#8220;Valley West is one of the better teams in the league. I know we could have done better, and we got in our heads at times. But we can build on this and improve going forward. I think you saw it&#8217;s going to take everyone. And I know that everyone is going to rise to the challenge.&#8221;</p><p>Redeemer appeared to be on its way to a 3-0 victory, but Valley West had other plans.</p><p>Down 23-20, the Spartans &#8211; with Gabby LaBar behind the service line &#8211; rallied. Valley West took advantage of a Gracie Giza kill, three Royals attack errors and a setting violation to win the final five points and steal the set, 25-23.</p><p>Giza, an all-conference player, was on fire to start the fourth. She had three kills as Valley West jumped out to a 9-4 lead to start. But a 10-0 spurt on Andrejko&#8217;s serve started a huge run as Redeemer closed the set and match on a 21-2 run.</p><p>&#8220;Every point is big because they all add up in the end,&#8221; Spartans coach RJ Tomascik said. &#8220;But this might be the happiest I&#8217;ve been after an 0-1 start. We are playing a state-ranked team. We went four with them, and three of the sets were really competitive. To me, our girls kept it together.</p><p>&#8220;I think we sent a message to ourselves that we can beat anyone in the league. And we kind of proved that we can compete with the top teams in the league.&#8221;</p><p>Redeemer got to a strong start in the opening set.</p><p>Kills by Osenkarski and Livia Moore, and four service points from Kuderka gave the Royals a 14-7 lead. Valley West got it back to 23-20, but a service miscue, ace by Andrejko and Briana Phillips&#8217; cross-court spike ended the set.</p><p>&#8220;This will be big for us,&#8221; Kablick said. &#8220;It&#8217;s experience. And you saw it. Skylar took some big swings. Julia, our floor captain, kind of kept things together. And Sarah Kuderka is a high-energy part of this team. We are definitely going to learn from this, and I think we will be better soon.&#8221;</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Holy Redeemer 3, Wyoming Valley West 1</strong></p><p><strong>WVW `20`25`25`11 &#8211; 1</strong></p><p><strong>HR `25`27`23`25 &#8211; 4</strong></p><p><strong>WVW Leaders:</strong> Gracie Giza 10 kills. 5 blocks; Tessa Johns 11 assists, 2 aces; Andi Blaski 3 kills, 9 service points.</p><p><strong>HR Leaders:</strong> Skylar Osenkarski 14 kills, 3 aces, 2 blocks; Julia Andrejko 4 kills, 4 aces, 23 points; Maddie Guido 18 assists, 11 points, 1 ace; Sarah Liskowicz 5 kills, 2 blocks.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Fox</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLsports</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Holy Redeemer volleyball passes four-set test from Valley West