ALBANY — In the game of volleyball, hot streaks are key to winning almost every night. That was brutally apparent for Juda in a sweep at the hands of the Comets Sept. 21. Albany rolled the Panthers 25-17, 25-4, 25-17.

“We were so impressed that they all came together. It just flowed. It was a team effort,” Albany coach Sydney Bump said.

The Panthers graduated its three all-conference players from a year ago, and first-year head coach Maren Huntsman has had to wade through the waters of COVID-19: A shortened season with fewer practices, which has left less time than desired to figure out her squad — and for her squad to figure out her style of play.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been lacking on practices,” Huntsman said. “Since I haven’t coached high school yet, only club, we had a week and a day before our first game — then we lost two girls on quarantine. We’re trying to have enough players to make it work.”

She also brought up some freshmen on the junior varsity squad to help fill the roster and gain some experience.

“It’s been a whirlwind of crazy changes; wearing the mask and trying to condition and all of that working into play. I feel like I’m getting to know the girls a lot better now. I’m finding their strengths,” Huntsman said.

In the first period against Albany, the Panthers went toe-to-toe with the hosts, holding a 9-8 lead early on. Then the first extended Comets run happened, and it was downhill from there.

Albany rolled off an 8-0 run to go up 16-9 and the two teams traded points the rest of the set.

In the second set, Albany went on a run for the ages. A combination of strong serving, net play and the Panthers getting inside their own heads went a long way in the Comets’ 25-4 steamroll.

“I felt like that second set, everything just flowed smoothly,” Bump said.

Albany’s Payton Firth opened the set with an ace and served 10 straight times before Juda could get a side-out. Jada Flannery, Myah Johnson and Aby Conway all came away with either a block or a kill to score points in the 9-0 run. Huntsman called a timeout at 8-0, and the Panthers briefly got the ball back at 9-1. 

Juda scored three straight points after the side-out, but the score went from bad to worse almost immediately.

Flannery brought possession back to the Comets with a kill. Conway took over at the service line, scoring two aces on 15 straight serves. Flannery had four kills in the 15-0 run, with Johnson, Alana Durtschi and Mady Conway all scoring for the Comets.

“They had good serves. We were trying to get our passes up,” Huntsman said. “We definitely had errors with our hits.”

The final five points of the streak were all unforced errors by the demoralized Panthers. When Juda did get another side-out, it came at 24-3 game point when Aby Conway served the ball into the net. The Panthers did the same moments later to close out the set.

“We were mixing up who we were setting. The passing was on, the setting was on — it was almost the perfect game. I think we had only one missed serve in that set, and it was on game point. Everything really clicked that game,” Bump said.

Juda had more firepower in the second set, opening with a 5-3 lead and then maintaining the advantage all the way to 13-10. 

Bump called a timeout, and then the Comets went streaking yet again, running off a 5-0 run with Firth back at the service line. 

“I told them that we just needed to take a breather and regroup,” Bump said of the timeout. “We were doing fine; we were just getting lost a little bit.”

After Albany failed to return a volley, Juda again gave possession back on a missed serve. The Comets responded with another 6-0 run to take complete control at 21-14.

“I feel like today we were diving and going for it. We just need to kind of get our rotation that was strong for us and stick with that,” Huntsman said.

She said her she was going to try a few rotational changes — and maybe even a positional change to utilize one of her best players.

“We might change our defense — going to a rotational defense from middle-up. I think we might change up our setter (Smith) so she can hit. I think our hitting is probably our weakest spot. We don’t have a super strong hitter right now, but hopefully we’ll find that with this next rotation,” Huntsman said.

Flannery led the Comets with 10 kills and two blocks, while Firth added six kills and nine assists. Johnson dished out six assists of her own, and Mady Conway chipped in 14 digs. At the service line, Aby Conway collected eight aces.

Juda’s Jocelyn Rufer had four aces, two kills and a block. Maddie Smith finished with two kills and five assists. Ciarrah Davis dug out 36 balls.

The Comets had a whirlwind to open the season, with the opening game of the season against Black Hawk postponed. When Albany finally hit the court Sept. 17 at Barneveld, the Eagles won in four sets. Against Juda, the Comets were without first-team all-conference hitter Brianna Dahl. 

“We’ve already had to go through people being quarantined and losing some players; ineligible players. It was nice that we could get a win after going through all of that,” Bump said. “We only had six of our 10 varsity players eligible (against Barneveld). It was a six-person game and they pretty much stayed in the whole time.”

Up next for the Comets was a scheduled match against Monticello Sept. 24, then a return to the court against the Panthers Sept. 29 at Juda. The Panthers, meanwhile, traveled to Barneveld Sept. 22 and host Monticello Sept. 28.