Staff photo / Preston Byers Canfield’s Payton Shina serves during the Cardinals’ 3-0 home win vs. Poland on Monday at Canfield High School.

CANFIELD — Canfield cruised to a three-set victory over Poland Monday to improve to 5-0 on the season.

The Cardinals rebounded from a slow start to the first set and pulled away in the third en route to a 25-12, 25-11, 25-15 home win.

“We played really well,” Canfield coach Krista Nesbitt said. “We played four games last week, so coming out of the weekend and not being able to practice yesterday on Sunday, I thought our girls responded really well. We started a little slow, but then once we played our pace and kind of got our offense going, everything went really well.”

While the start was less than ideal for Canfield, even by the halfway point in the opening set, the Cardinals were building a large lead.

Poland remained within striking distance early, but the Cardinals soon began winning point after point, blowing open the advantage to as much as 13 by the end of the set.

Canfield continued where it left off in the second set after another back-and-forth start; Canfield went from tied at 3 to up 10-4 before continuing the one-sided affair. The Cardinals, buoyed by the athleticism of Ashtyn Hanousek and Paige Roberts, as well as several service errors by the Bulldogs, Canfield turned in a 25-11 second-set win.

Canfield began the third set with four consecutive points, appearing to carry the momentum it built in the first two sets into what could have been a quick finale.

However, Poland found its footing; after the 0-4 start, the Bulldogs earned three points in a row and eventually took a slim lead.

“I think they knew if they didn’t put up a fight, they were definitely going home,” Poland head coach Cara Bornemiss said. “So I think that they put that fight in to try to continue to a fourth game.”

Canfield, as it had done in both of the first two sets, recovered and strung three points together to take a small lead, which only grew soon thereafter. The Cardinals, holding on to a 16-13 advantage, closed out the set and match with a dominant run in which they won nine of the final 11 points.

“They’re a really scrappy team, so they kept giving us everything back, and I think we did a better job as the game went on, capitalizing on those free balls or out-of-system balls that they gave us. But our biggest difference was serving aggressively at them,” Nesbitt said.

Bornemiss said she saw some notable changes in her team in the third set after two disappointing sets to begin the match.

“There was just a little bit of frustration and attitude on the floor,” Bornemiss said. “So I think that those two sets really didn’t do our team justice. But the third set, I mean, we still lost by a few, but the attitudes were better, and they just played their own game.”

With the loss, the Bulldogs are 1-3 through the first week of the season, having lost to Campbell, South Range and Canfield. Poland defeated Niles on Aug. 19.

The Bulldogs host Lakeview in a Northeast 8 Conference matchup tonight.

Canfield, which played and won five matches in 10 days to start the season, plays on Thursday against Warren G. Harding.

Nesbitt said she is looking forward to having a little break from matches.

“Anytime you can play is great,” Nesbitt said. “We’ve gotten to play so much that we actually haven’t got to practice enough to fine-tune some of the things that we’ve seen in the games. But we’re excited to get back in the gym tomorrow, break down some film, work on some things at practice and then get another opportunity to play.”