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Gilmour Academy, Alexander advance in D-III semifinals November 21, 2008 By Jim Jicha Gates Mills Gilmour Academy and Albany Alexander headed for a State championship rematch of last year’s state semifinal after beating Lima Central Catholic and Versailles, respectively, in the Division III semifinals. In a 2007 semifinal, Alexander nipped Gilmour 25-18, 25-21, 18-25, 24-26, 16-14 in a 2007 semifinal before falling in four to Lima Central in the championship. Gilmour prevailed over top ranked Lima Central 25-19, 25-17, 25-21 in a match that was over in one hour and eight minutes. Not many expected such a short match and Gilmour senior outside Maddie Mawby said afterward “I’m very surprised we won in three. That shows how well we played”. Central Catholic Coach Dave Franklin agreed that the Lancers did indeed play very well. “I give them credit, they soft blocked us and put a lot of free balls on point” Franklin said, adding that when it looked like LCC was struggling “part of that was them (Gilmour) being as good as they are”. Central Catholic setter Alexis Diglio added “They played really great defense and we just couldn’t play our game. We gave it all we had”. The match featured two teams with many similarities. Gilmour Coach Jeff Grzybowski said “Before we played, I compared them to us, not real tall, no superstars, but very good players…battlers”. He added “They have a history of coming back, but we do too”. Grzybowski felt defense was the key to the Lancers’ win. He said Central Catholic served aggressively and “they missed some, but when they didn’t our serve receive was there”. The Lancers were led defensively by Mawby, libero Alyssa Brigeman, and outside Raysa Sylvester with nine digs each. Jess Hammer added seven more. Gilmour got on the board first when senior outside Mary Kramer ended an intense volley by hammering a Kelsey Rodgers quickset for the first of her team leading 14 kills. She encored with a cross-court shot to left back. Junior middle Danielle Taflinger spiked Central onto the board, after which Gilmour gave up two points on errors. But Kramer retied it, and Gilmour added three more as Hammer dug a spike hit right at her over the net as she fell backwards. The teams traded points to 9-7, and Kramer spiked two more kills to pace a 4-1 spurt to 13-8. Gilmour’s lead grew further as Mawby hammered a point, and Rodgers teamed with middle blocker Brittany Shirk for one block and soloed on another. That made it 16-9, and Hammer and Sylvester combined for three kills to make it 20-12. The Thunderbirds rallied for five, however, after a Lancer hitting error. Senior outside Kacy Querry smoked a Diglio short set, junior outside Andrea Thomas and senior middle Rachel Illig spiked points and Querry blasted another short set. A serving error ended the run, and Kramer scored two timely block kills to re-up the margin to 23-17. Querry and Sylvester exchanged kills, and following a Gilmour error, Kramer ended the game with a kill. Kramer started Gilmour off again in game two, and after a block on Mawby by Thomas, she hammered a cross-court kill. Mawby added a kill and Kramer served an ace. Diglio and Taflinger teamed up on a block for LCC, but Gilmour moved ahead 6-2, and increased the margin to 9-3 and 15-7. Lima Central roared back with five when Taflinger blasted a short set and tipped for two and Illig added two more kills. But after an exchange of service errors, Shirk tipped an overpass and crunched a short set from Rodgers, and Mawby popped into a hole from back court. That left Gilmour in front 19-13. Querry got the T-Birds going again, blasting a short set and teaming with Thomas on a block. And after a service miscue, she demolished a short set. Central outside JoJo Krieg added a kill down the left, cutting the lead to 20-17. But Kramer scored another rally ending kill, and Hammer followed with an ace. And following a T-Birds’ error, Sylvester spiked a kill off a set from Mawby. Kramer ended game two with a blast down the middle. The T-Birds came on strong in game three and for a while a fourth set seemed in store. Krieg began the scoring with a kill, and Central bolted to leads of 4-1 and 8-2 behind spiking by Taflinger, Querry and Illig, and an ace from Krieg. Gilmour rallied for four, and the T-Birds scored two more. Gilmour eventually knotted things at 12-all. But Lima Central moved back in front 17-13 as Talinger block killed, and Krieg spiked a kill down the left and dug a blast by Mawby. A service error ended the rally, however, and Sylvester served up four points, two on kills by Mawby and Kramer. And when Brigeman prevented a tip by Taflinger from scoring, a double hit by Central gave the Lancers their first lead 18-17. The T-Birds went back in front 20-19 as Illig spiked a knock down kill and Querry blocked Shirk. But a net serve retied the score, and the T-Birds obliged further with an attack error. On the next play, Hammer scored on a tightly angled cross-court hit to the right front and Central Catholic called timeout. That didn’t work, however, as Rodgers short set Shirk for a kill and a 23-20 lead. And when Illig finally scored for the T-Birds, Mawby parried with a spike that was blocked into the pole. Hammer then went to her right for a booming block to end the match. Despite the loss, Franklin said “I’m walking out of here with a smile on my face”. He noted that three years ago the senior class made some goals and achieved them, and even though they won’t win a state title this year, they did get one. He reminded his players that this game would be only a small part of their lives. “Tears” he said “are a sign you cared”.
********************************************************************** That’s what Albany Alexander Coach Bradd Jeffers said to his players as they walked into the media room after getting past Versailles 26-24, 25-19, 27-25 in their semifinal. The Spartans held a huge 55-26 advantage in kills for the match. But they hurt themselves with 14 errors in game one and 11 in game three, and they were fortunate to win in straight sets. Talking about the first set, Jeffers said “We have a really good habit of starting bad. I’m not sure why we do that…I think its excitement”. Setter Sarah Radekin added “I was getting a little nervous at the beginning. It was exciting coming here, it doesn’t matter how many times you come here it’s going to be exciting”. She added “Actually, if we’d have started off well I’d have been a little scared because we’ve done that every game”. Jeffers attributed the high number of errors to his teams’ aggressive play. The Spartans made seven serving errors to just one for Versailles. Jeffers said “We served aggressively and you’re going to miss some serves”. But he added “Against good teams, it’s easy to quit being aggressive when you miss a couple, or you get behind”. And, he emphasized “It’s important to stay aggressive” regardless of the situation. Jeffers said that once “we got into a better rhythm,” things turned around. Versailles Coach Jeremy Riley echoed Jeffers’ comments about the aggressive serving. He said that Spartans’ libero Lauren Raines (who had three of the errors) put a top spin on her serves that got his team out of system. He said Alexander “played very good volleyball”. Both teams began the match with errors as Versailles took leads of 3-0 and 4-1. The Tigers would lead for much of the game. Alexander senior middle Betsy Irwin tipped for the first kill of the match, but the Tigers went further ahead 7-2 when 6’1” junior middle Megan Campbell pounded a quickset from junior setter Jill Hemmelgarn, and Alexander obliged with two more miscues. Senior left side Whitney Smith got the Spartans back on the board when she dug a blast by Campbell and spiked a kill from backcourt. She and Irwin spiked cross-court kills to cut the lead to 8-5. But the Tigers went up 12-7, led by 5’11” junior Tara Winner. Alexander came back with three on kills by 6’2” senior middle Megan McCoy, and Smith from backcourt, and a double block by sophomore outside Julie Els and Irwin. But Versailles parried with three points of their own, on a kill and block by Campbell and an ace from Hemmelgarn. Alexander again closed to 16-14, as Irwin, Smith and junior Haley Born spiked points, but Versailles scored two and the teams traded two-point exchanges, leaving the Tigers on top 20-16. But after Born turned a set that was too far to the right into a cross-court kill, the Spartans rallied big time. McCoy spiked two kills, and after a timeout, Versailles failed to return a serve from Born, and followed that with an attack error. McCoy block killed, Els spiked a point and suddenly Alexander was up 23-20. A hit under the net ended the run, however, and 5’11” outside Taylor Ording served an ace. And after an Alexander timeout, she dished up two more aces, putting Versailles at game point 24-23. McCoy turned it back around, block killing in the middle and then blasting an overpass, to put the Spartans up 25-24. She then teamed with Els for the game winning block. Versailles scored first in game two, but Els knotted it with a kill and after a block by Irwin the Spartans led 3-1. And although there would be six more ties, Alexander would never again trail. Spartan setter Sarah Radekin scored the first of her eight kills on a dump to break a 3-3 tie, and Smith and Els broke two more ties. Alexander then scored four straight to go up 13-8, as Radekin contributed another dump. But the Tigers roared back with five when Campbell smoked a kill down the line, and she and 6’2” Christine Borchers combined for three blocks, while setter Shelby Bey served up an ace. After the teams traded points, Radekin scored on another dump to begin a four point run, and the Spartans led from there. Campbell ended the run by blasting a Hemmelgarn short set, and she followed with an ace. But Smith scored for the Spartans from back court, and point trading advanced the score to 20-18. Alexander upped their lead to 23-18 on back-to-back kills by Smith and McCoy, and an ace by Born. McCoy made it 24-19 with a cross-court blast off the slide. The game ended on a reach-over by the Tigers. Game three went back and forth with ten ties. Campbell scored first on a block of a back court spike by Smith, but McCoy and Irwin spiked kills and Alexander took leads of 3-1 and 6-3. The Tigers tied on a ball handling error following a serve from Campbell. But the Spartans went back on top 8-6 and then 12-9. Radekin ended one long volley with a two-hander dump that skipped off the net into a hole. Versailles rallied ahead 13-12 on a kill by Bey, an ace from Hemmelgarn and a block by Borchers. Irwin ended the run, but the Tigers scored two more and the scoring went back and forth to 19-17. But Radekin produced another dump, then short set Irwin who rifled a tying shot to back court. Campbell countered with a straight down smash, but Spartan libero Lauren Raines scored on a two hander that landed beyond the defense. Radekin dished up an ace to put Alexander in the lead 21-20. Campbell retied it, but Smith countered with another spike from backcourt, and Els served an ace. After a timeout, Versailles retied it on a big block by Winner. Smith then smoked an overpass from a tip by Born, which put Alexander at match point. But the Spartans were called for lifting on the next volley while attempting to blast another overpass. McCoy spiked them to another match point, but a Spartan hitting error on a free ball left the score tied at 25. Radekin came through again with yet another dump, however, and McCoy slid right and pounded the winning point into the Tigers’ left middle. To their credit, the Spartans did not get rattled by the lift call, even though it came at a critical juncture and was questioned by many in their crowd. Smith said afterward “We do a good job of dealing with that kind of stuff”. She added that a call on a play like that “can change momentum and get you down, but we didn’t (get down)”. McCoy paced Alexander’s attack with 13 kills and Smith and Irwin added 12 and 11, respectively. But Radekin may have saved the day with her timely dumps – she finished with eight kills in ten tries and no errors for a whopping .800 percentage, while dishing out 38 assists and contributing nine digs. Raines led the defense with 21 digs. Many of Smith’s kills came from back row and Jeffers said he thought the Spartans’ back row attack affected the match’s outcome to their benefit. “We got free balls back from the back row attack when we did not get kills”. Riley praised the Spartans’ ball handling skills. He said that only one in the Midwest Athletic Conference utilizes the back row attack. But he added that his players stayed in each of the games and did not become rattled when Alexander dig everything. “They came so far” Riley said of his relatively young team. “A lot of people wrote us off as a rebuilding team, but you saw it on the court. They never quit”. Jeffers, meanwhile, summed up his comments with “I’ve never in my life been around a group of people that work harder for a certain goal. We aren’t as talented as some of the teams here, but we will gut anyone out if we get a chance to win a game”. One down, and one to go.
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