Ohiohsvb.com News About Ohio High School Volleyball |
|
|
Albany Alexander caps tournament of firsts with first state title December 4, 2008 By Jim Jicha Fourth ranked Albany Alexander capped off a day of state tournament firsts with an impressive 25-17, 27-25, 25-15 victory over third rated Gates Mills Gilmour Academy in the Division III state championship match. It was the school’s first state title in any individual or team sport, and it was the first time a team from smack dab in the middle of southeast Ohio had ever won a state volleyball crown. This was the Spartans’ third consecutive trip to the final four. In 2006 they lost in a semifinal to state champion Anna. Last year they nipped Gilmour 25-18, 25-21, 18-25, 24-26, 16-14 before falling in four to Lima Central Catholic in the final. Three starters on the 2006 squad were sophomores, and the experience of having been to state before helped “a lot”, according to 6’2” senior middle hitter Megan McCoy. Senior outside hitter Whitney Smith added, “The first year, getting here was the excitement. Next year it was, okay, let’s make the championship. We’ve been on the floor three years in a row, we’ve played here, we know what its like”. Libero Lauren Raines said on the court regular season experience against strong teams with “6’4” blockers and 6’4” hitters” helped their tourney run. Early in the season the 28-1 Spartans defeated Cincinnati Sycamore and St. Henry to take third in Celina’s Casad Invitational. Then they toppled Division II powers Wooster Triway and Warsaw River View in the latter’s quad. And they tuned up for the tournament with a straight set win over Marion Pleasant. In the state tournament the Spartans won convincingly in three over their first five tournament opponents, including nineteenth rated North Adams, and second ranked Frankfort Adena whom they beat 25-16, 25-19, 25-13. They struggled with Versailles in the semifinal 26-24, 25-19, 27-25. The Spartans did not expect to take Gilmour (27-2) in straight sets, according to Coach Bradd Jeffers. “I didn’t think we’d win in three. We told the kids today I don’t care how we do it, our job today is to win three games, it doesn’t matter in what order, and we don’t have to win the serve-receive game and the serve game every time, we just have to do it three times”. Jeffers added that Gilmour was “a good volleyball team and they played a tough schedule with only one loss”, and he noted that “they played great yesterday”. Gilmour upended top ranked defending state champion Lima Central Catholic in their three-game semifinal. Alexander had only one loss as well, which came at the hands of Celina. Ironically, had they won that match the Spartans would have faced Division IV winner Marion Local for the Casad championship. Jeffers attributed the Spartans’ strong showing in the final to aggressive serving. He explained “We lost last year to a team (Lima Central Catholic) that served more aggressively than us. Going into this season we said we will not ever lose to a team that is serving more aggressively than us. And that was the difference in the match. We served very aggressively. We missed five serves in the first game and it was still lopsided”. The Spartans did a great job of serve receiving, digging and blocking and Jeffers pointed out that “when we can do those things, our offense is good”. Alexander’s offense wasn’t just good, it was stellar. McCoy paced the attack with 12 kills, while senior middle Betsy Irwin and Smith added nine and eight more, respectively. Setter Sarah Radekin had 32 assists. But it all began with the serve receive of libero Lauren Raines who also led the defense with 23 digs. The Spartans made only four receive errors the entire match. Blocking was another factor as Alexander, led by McCoy, Irwin and Radekin, outscored the Lancers 12-4. Gilmour Coach Jeff Grzybowski concurred with Jeffers’ comments saying that Alexander “serve received really well and when they have three options where to set the ball, it causes your defense trouble”. He added, “They played a great game and they served really tough. Serve receive is our strength, but it wasn’t quite as crisp as it was the other day”. Grzybowski also noted that “it was hard to get them (Alexander) out of system. When we’d get some good hits, they’d get them up, and they’d make scramble plays and get them back over”. Alexander started game one off quickly with leads of 5-0, 8-1, and 10-2, and the Lancers never came closer than six. The fast start surprised them, according to Smith who said to some laughter, “we’ve never done that before”. She added, “I just said this yesterday, we always start off slow and we pull it out”. The team’s reaction at the time was “Oh my gosh we started off strong, maybe we’re going to keep going”. And they did. The Spartans’ first point came thanks to a Lancer hitting error, which Irwin followed with a kill. Sophomore Julie Els served an ace and Irwin added two block kills. A service error ended that run, but Smith and McCoy kept things going with spikes. Gilmour closed a bit on kills by senior right side/defensive specialist Jessica Hammer and senior outside Raysa Sylvester, but Irwin countered in kind, and Els served another ace to make it 16-7. A dump by senior setter Sarah Radekin put Alexander up 20-11, and a block by Radekin and a spike from Els upped the margin to 22-12. Two of the Spartans’ five service errors prolonged the outcome, before Irwin finished it with a blast to back court. Game two was highly contested with eleven ties and three lead changes. And although Alexander was a step ahead most of the way, they had to fend off a 24-23 game point serve by the Lancers. Gilmour scored first on a service error and led 3-1 after an ace by senior setter Kelsey Rodgers. But a kill by McCoy sparked a three-point burst, as Smith smoked a point and junior outside Haley Born served an ace. Lancer middle blocker Brittany Shirk retied it, but Radekin and McCoy teamed up for a block on Sylvester. Smith followed with an ace and McCoy added a kill for a 7-4 lead. And after a kill by Sylvester, McCoy started another three-point spurt to 10-5. Sylvester, however, spiked a kill off the block and the Lancers rattled off five points to knot things back up, as junior outside Kramer contributed two spikes and senior right side Jess Hammer added an ace. After a service error, Rodgers tied it again with a dump. Alexander edged back in front behind a double block by Els and Irwin, and kills from Smith and McCoy, but senior outside Mawby and Shirk kept the Lancers within a point. Two errors raised the Spartans’ lead to 17-14, and after a Lancer timeout, another miscue and a kill by McCoy made it 19-14. The teams traded points to 21-16, at which point Kramer terminated a set from Rodgers, and that proved to be a catalyst. Alexander obliged with an error and called timeout, to no avail, as Rodgers blocked Irwin, and Mawby pounded two points to tie the game at 21. But the first of two untimely Lancer attack errors put Alexander back on top. Mawby promptly retied it and Smith and Shirk exchanged kills. A kill by Mawby put Gilmour at game point 24-23, but after another Spartan timeout, the Lancers obliged with another hitting error. Radekin and McCoy teamed up for a go ahead block kill, and a service error left the score 25-all. McCoy, however, came through with another blast, and with no service error forthcoming, Smith sent a game ending spike Gilmour’s way. McCoy said pulling game two out “was huge”. Raines noted that the Spartans have gotten a lot better at execution in those situations, adding, “We used to back down and now we step up and when its 24-23, their serve, I like playing in that situation”. Jeffers concurred with “They’ve done that all year. When their backs are to the wall they don’t get nervous, they don’t get tight”. He said that in the second game “we started having communication errors, our timing was off and we started tipping. Then in the timeout we said ‘we’re done tipping, don’t tip - swing. Swing, swing, swing!’”. The Lancers came out fighting in game three and took a 5-2 lead behind kills by Kramer and Shirk. But Born spiked a point off the Lancers’ block and that started a six-point run as the Spartans raced ahead 8-5. And they never looked back. McCoy added three kills and a block, and Born served up an ace. And after a block by Shirk closed the gap to 10-7, the Spartans erupted for four more as Els pounded two kills, Raines dished up an ace and Irwin block killed. Sylvester ended the run, but Irwin countered, and the Lancers never came closer than 16-11. Alexander upped the lead to 19-12, and after Shirk intervened with a kill, McCoy and Radekin double blocked twice to up the ante to 21-13. With the match slipping away, Shirk blocked McCoy, but McCoy fired right back with a point. Two ace serves by Raines put Alexander on the cusp with a game point lead of 24-14. One hitting error later, Irwin delivered the coup de grace that gave Alexander and southeastern Ohio their first volleyball crown. Afterward, McCoy described being state champion as “a whole bunch of mixed feelings” She added, “It’s excitement. We’re all proud of each other, we’re proud of all the work we put into it. It’s such a great accomplishment to finally be on top”. Smith said “We put in so much work from day one and to see it finally pay off…it’s something we can remember forever and cherish forever”. McCoy added “You obviously can’t ask for anything else other than to finish on top and we did it”. Raines summed it up succinctly with “It’s the last volleyball game we’ll play together, and we won. It’s awesome”. Match Notes 1) Gilmour Academy Coach Jeff Grzybowski talked afterward about the legacy his seniors, especially Raysa Sylvester, Kelsey Rodgers and Maddie Mawby, have established. “You’ve got to give them (Alexander) all the credit, but you shouldn’t take anything away from this team, especially these three girls. They have been four-year varsity starters, and are the #1 reason for the success of the program”. Over the past three years Gilmour is 76-9. In 2006 they lost the regional final to state champion Villa Angela-St. Joseph, and last year Alexander nipped them in a state semifinal. 2) “Nothing was clicking” was how Maddie Mawby described the championship match. Asked about the difference between their semifinal match with Lima Central Catholic and the final, Rachel Sylvester responded “We thought too much about last year’s game and that we didn’t want a repeat of it, and it ended up being worse”. Maddie Mawby added “We psyched ourselves out. We played not to lose”. 3) Although clearly disappointed, Gilmour’s players were philosophical about the loss. Kelsey Rodgers said the result was “not satisfying yet”, but added “when we look back on it, for me personally, it will be very satisfying”. Maddie Mawby described the excitement of the tournament experiece. “We’re best friends. And we were getting texts from people at school saying ‘bring it home for Gilmour, bring it home for our community’. What a better way to go out than with your best friends, even if you’re going down swinging”. Rachel Sylvester summed with “I think we’re leaving big shoes to fill, but it hasn’t been completed yet”. 4) Alexander Coach Bradd Jeffers was gushing with pride over how well his team played. He was especially pleased with their serving. “We told the kids if we win the serve receive game, and we serve more aggressively than them, we’re going to have a good chance of winning this match” he said, adding “We served hard. I’m not sure any team in the state tournament served harder…although they probably didn’t miss as many as we did”. 5) For seniors, state championships can be a mix of not only joy but sadness as well, because it’s their final time on the court together. It’s a tough time for coaches too, who have grown attached to their players and must now say goodbye. That may explain why Bradd Jeffers became nostalgic as he remarked “Nobody has any idea how hard these kids have worked”. Then, choking up with emotion, he concluded his comments with “There’s not a team in Ohio that has worked harder than that group of girls, I can promise you that”. 6) Winning every match in three wasn’t a big deal to Megan McCoy, who said “Personally, I don’t really notice the sets or how many games we’ve won. I just notice the big W’s”. 7) What was a big deal to McCoy was her transformation into a dominating hitter and a team leader this season. Asked to comment she explained “It’s really exciting to me because last year I was not a big contributor to the team”. And the stats tell the tale. At state in 2007 McCoy had nine kills and seventeen errors. Smith led with 31 kills followed by Irwin with 27. But McCoy paced the Spartans in each of this year’s final four matches, racking up 25 total kills while committing only six errors and averaging a whopping .380 kill percent. McCoy joked that when this season began “someone would say ‘Megan McCoy just scored a kill’ and someone else would say ‘who’s Megan McCoy?’”. Anyone who saw her play in the Nutter Center knows who she is. 8) Albany will be hard pressed to advertise their school’s state championship. Whitney Smith said “We don’t have any restaurants to put up signs”. The town has only one stop light, and according to Lauren Raines “the Dairy Queen just shut down”. 9) Several state champions have come from a southeast regional, Newark Catholic, Frankfort Adena, Buckeye Trail and Canal Winchester to name a few. But Alexander is the first high school located south of Interstate 70, east of US23, and not in the Central District to win state. 10) There are many great volleyball tournaments around the state, and Celina’s Casad Invitational is one. Among the contestants this year were state champions Alexander and Marion Local, and regional runners-up Celina and St. Henry. 11) Quotes of the tournament: According to Alexander Coach Bradd Jeffers, “Playing Gilmour is a lot like playing us”. Jeffers noted the Lancers had two good middles, two good outsides, a good right side a very talented setter and was overall very athletic. That does sound like the Spartans. When asked what problems Megan McCoy presented to his team, Gilmour Coach Jeff Grzybowski laughed and said “Blocking, hitting, the basics”.
|
|
Copyright © 2002-2012 [ohiohsvb.com]. All rights reserved. |