Ohiohsvb.com News About Ohio High School Volleyball |
|
|
Centerville finally wins own Elite Tournament, roller coaster season continues for top teams By Jim Jicha
Centerville finally won their own Elite Tournament last weekend, beating last year’s champion Archbishop Moeller in the final.
No one on the coaching staff could recall when the Elks last won the event, or if, in fact, they have ever won it. The consensus was that they had not won since at least 1994, a year when they were State Champions.
Since then Centerville has just about any tournament you can think of, including more State Titles in 2001 and 2002.
The Elks’ inability to win their tournament is a testimony to the quality of competition the event draws. Six of the eights teams in this year’s Elite received votes in last week’s state poll, and the state's top three teams were accounted for.
Centerville isn’t the only team who has had trouble in the tournament. Last season, three of Ohio’s Final Four, Centerville, St. Xavier and Archbishop Watterson, played in the Elite. Centerville took third, St. X was fourth and Watterson finished seventh. Just five weeks later Centerville beat Watterson in the State Championship match.
This year’s Elite results also marked a continuation of the up-and-down everyone-beats-everyone roller coaster of a season that has been going on since day one.
Incidentally, even Cedar Point is now getting in on this act. In an attempt to compete, the amusement park has added a new thrill ride. The Top Thrill Dragster propels a rider straight up, accelerates to 120 mph, and reaches a height of 420 feet, before plummeting straight down while spiraling 270 degrees.
That’s a pretty apt description of the boys’ volleyball season. There are several coaches who probably already know what riding the Dragster feels like.
Before reviewing the matches at the Elite, we should recall where things stood at the start of action on Saturday morning.
Centerville won St. Charles’ Cardinal Classic the first week of the season, beating St. Xavier in the process. St. X beat Elder the next week. And Moeller started off with several lopsided wins.
In week three, St. X beat the Elks, who in turn beat Moeller. Later that same week at Kilbourne, St. X beat the Elks again, but lost to Moeller. Things were getting confusing.
Roger Bacon beat Centerville in week four. And last week Moeller beat Roger Bacon, then lost to St. X in a marathon. Meanwhile, Centerville scored an ominous win, holding 9-1 Fairborn to just one point.
St. Xavier came to the Elite with a 4-1 record head-to-head against Centerville, Moeller and Elder. They seemed to be the favorite, on paper at least.
So what happened? Well, Moeller beat St. X in one semifinal, while Centerville stopped Elder in the other. Elder beat St. X for third place, while Centerville topped the Crusaders in the final.
Head to head records involving these four teams are now as follows: Centerville 4-2, St. Xavier 4-4, Moeller 2-3, and, Elder 1-2. Oh, by the way, in their five head-to-head matches with Centerville and St. X, Moeller leads in scoring 168-148.
Turning to the first round matches, Beavercreek got early momentum on St. Xavier by rolling to a 9-0 lead. Beavercreek was led by Tim Green and Josh and David Millward. St. X rallied with seven unanswered points to make it 9-7. After that the teams battled on even terms with Beavercreek winning on a spike by Green that was blocked out of bounds.
Things continued in Beavercreek’s favor as they jumped on top in game two. They still led 10-8 when momentum swung the Bombers way, and stayed there. St. X scored 22 of the match’s final 26 points.
The rally started with the Bombers scoring five quick points on errors. Green got the serve back for Beavercreek on a kill, and a block by 6’6” junior Eric Buscher gave Beavercreek its final point of the game. Jason Motz had a back court spike for kill to break serve, then scored on a kill. The Bomber’s game winning point came after a great dig by Colin Johnson of a spike by Green.
Patrick Corrigan led St. X in game three, as the Bombers romped to a 15-3 win.
In another first round match Stow, led by Ben Spurlock, took a 10-6 lead over Elder in game one. But the Bulldogs were undone by several errors, and Elder came back for the win. The final point came on a block by Elder’s Brian Meyers, resulting in a lift call on Stow. Elder won the second game 15-8 with less difficulty.
In other first round action, Centerville topped Watterson, while Moeller beat the Centerville junior varsity. The JV squad was recruited into action when Louisville St. Xavier was unable to make the tournament.
The second round match between St. Xavier and Moeller started up right where their marathon match last Wednesday left off. In that match St. X won 6-15, 15-13, 20-18, after losing a 14-9 lead in game three.
Even though Moeller won 15-9, the first game took almost 45 minutes, due to at least 55 service breaks. At one point, with Moeller on top 10-6, the teams traded 15 sideouts. After what appeared to be a Moeller sideout was overruled, and a replay was ordered, . St. X finally scored.
Nate Detmer had at least four points for Moeller on tips and spikes. Robbie Klein scored the final point on a service ace. The Bombers also yielded some points on hits that were out.
Game two was closer but went somewhat faster. After a brief Bomber lead at 2-1, Moeller moved out in front 9-2 on hitting by Klein, Nick Meyer and Mark Wimmers. St. Xavier cut the lead to 10-8 with Jeremy Snell and Corrigan providing timely kills and blocks.
Moeller appeared to have gotten to match point at 14-9, but a replay was called resulting in an argument and yellow card. On the replay Meyer scored a kill to make it 14-9 officially. Snell got a kill to break serve for St. X, and Motz scored on a kill.
When a Moeller spike hit the pole the score was 14-11, and it appeared as if the replay had given the Bombers new life. But Meyer was having none of that. After a side out, his jump serve blasted off the receiver’s hands into the upper deck. The match was over.
Meanwhile, the Centerville-Elder match had ended a half hour before. The Elks won the first game 15-4 and went up 13-5 in the second. But Elder, led by kills from Scott Spitznagel and Mark Lucas, rallied with five straight points.
Nick Schrock got a kill to give Elder another serve at 13-10, but that was followed by a service error. The Elks quickly scored points 14 and 15, winning on a kill into a hole by Brett Versen.
Then came the title match between Centerville and Moeller. The Elks had won their previous meeting 16-14, 16-14.
The first game was a another barnburner. After Moeller scored the first point on an errant Centerville spike, the Elks jumped out to a big lead. A smash by Meyer was blocked for a point. Six sideouts later, Reed Chilton scored on one of his patented dump sets. Versen nailed a spike and Greg Caylor had an ace as the Elks rolled to a 6-1 margin.
Meyer demolished an Elks’ overpass for a point, but after five sideouts the Elks moved up 8-2. With the score 9-3, Meyer stuffed a Centerville spike for a sideout. Greg Kelly got a block to make it 9-4. Meyer followed with a blocking and hitting clinic, making the score 9-8.
The Elks’ Greg Caylor drove down a Crusader defender with a kill for sideout. After some intense play at the net, the Elks scored on a lift. Centerville lead increased to 11-8 when a Moeller block was out of bounds.
The Crusaders then resumed their rally to take the lead. They tied the score on a service ace by Klein, and Detmer got a kill after a spectacular dig by a Moeller defender of a dump attempt by Chilton.
But the Elks were not to be denied. Versen got two kills to break serve and tie the match. After a lift by Moeller, Versen got it to game point on a kill. Chilton then served game point which came on an errant Crusader hit.
Games two and three were not as tense, as the Crusaders and Elks traded 15-7 wins. Moeller raced to leads of 8-2 and 14-5 in game two.
Klein, Meyer, setter Matt Gold, Detmer, Wimmers and Kelly all scored in the balanced attack. Gold’s score came on a dump. Klein scored the final point on a spike that was blocked out of bounds.
In game three Centerville jumped on top 3-0. After some sideouts, they increased the lead to 6-0 with Andrew McFarlin contributing two service aces. He almost got a third by popping the serve just over the net, but a quick reaction by a Moeller defender, and a Centerville hit into the pole ended McFarlin’s string.
Two sideouts later Moeller scored on an errant Centerville hit. After two more sideouts Moeller scored again when an Elk player was under the net.
This was followed by a sideout marathon that included solid kills by Centerville’s Tyler Jolly and Ben Devine, and a nice block by Moeller’s Detmer on a Chilton dump attempt.
After Daniel Cullis’ kill gave Centerville the serve, the teams traded points to make it 8-4. However, the Elks then scored three straight on a Versen kill, an ace by Versen (after two sideouts), and a block by Greg Caylor.
Robbie Klein ate up an overpass from an errant dig of a Nick Meyer spike for a Crusader point, but a service error and two more Moeller errors brought Centerville to match point. And after Moeller scored twice on errors, Cullis’ kill gave Centerville its long overdue title.
In the match for third, Elder avenged an earlier loss by stopping St. Xavier 15-2, 15-12. Elder was in control from the get-go in the first game. The final two points came on a kill by Kurt Gindling and an errant hit by St. X.
The second game was much closer. Elder led most of the way, but St. X rallied from an 11-7 deficit to take a 12-11 lead. Elder countered with a rally of their own. Brian Meyers hit an ace serve to get them to match point. The teams traded four sideouts before a block by 6’6” junior John Bertke won it.
Beavercreek took fifth beating Watterson 15-12, 5-15, 15-6. Going into that match, Watterson had just handed sixth ranked Stow is worst defeat of the year, 15-2, 15-5.
In the first game, Josh Millward had two aces in a row as Beavercreek rallied from an 8-11 deficit. He also scored a kill for the game winning point.
Centerville’s JV team had a very respectable showing, scoring 22 points against both Beavercreek and Stow.
In other tournament action on Saturday, Hilliard Darby was back in championship form as they beat Worthington Kilbourne, Hilliard Davidson and St. Charles to win the Pickerington Tournament.
Cincinnati and Dayton are not the only areas where the extreme parity is driving fans crazy. Central District has been on its own roller coaster ride, and Darby’s win only adds to the confusion there.
Prior to Saturday, Kilbourne had established themselves as the team to beat with wins over Hilliard Darby and Dublin Scioto, or so it seemed. But Darby’s win is sure to have the pollsters tearing their hair out.
To keep things interesting, after beating Kilbourne in three, the Panthers struggled over Hilliard rival Davidson, and nipped St. Charles in game one of their title match 16-14. St. Charles was fresh from a win over Mt. Vernon, who recently beat Darby.
Meanwhile, Kilbourne struggled to beat Pickerington. They won the match for fifth in three over Dublin Coffman, but were outscored.
While this roller coaster season has many coaches in tears, it is great for the fans. There have been a lot of tense matches. Looking forward to the state tournament, there are several potential key matches for which the end result will be no more predictable than a coin flip.
Having the finals in Cleveland with the new format will make it even more exciting. By including the quarterfinals on Friday, fans will be able to attend what were last year the regional finals. These matches will be followed on Saturday by the semifinals and final.
And for any fan whose yen for thrills is not filled after the final, the season can be extended. Just stay over another night, drive an hour on Sunday morning to Cedar Point, and take on the Dragster. But that won’t be quite as exciting, because on that roller coaster, you know what is going to happen.
Centerville Elite - 2003 Results
First Round Elder def. Stow 15-12, 15-8 Centerville def. Watterson 15-3, 15-11 St. Xavier def. Beavercreek 13-15, 15-11, 15-3
Second Round Watterson def. Stow 15-2, 15-5 Beavercreek def. Centerville JV 15-11, 15-11 Moeller def. St. Xavier 15-9, 15-11 Centerville def. Elder 15-4, 15-10
Third Round Seventh Place Stow def. Centerville JV 15-8, 16-14 Fifth Place Beavercreek def. Watterson 15-12, 5-15, 15-6 Third Place Elder def. St. Xavier 15-2, 15-12 Championship Centerville def. Moeller 15-12, 7-15, 15-7
|
|
Copyright © 2002-2007 [ohiohsvb.com]. All rights reserved. |