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Beaumont final four bound with historic regional final win over Lake Catholic By Jim Jicha The Beaumont School volleyball team wrote their own history last weekend with a 27-25, 25-20, 25-27, 25-18 victory over defending state champion Lake Catholic in a regional championship match played at Stow-Munroe Falls High School. With that, the Blue Streaks earned their first trip to the final four in volleyball. Beaumont is renowned in girls track with 16 state team titles, the most in a single sport by any Ohio school. The Blue Streaks have also won eight state championships in cross country. Those, however, are the only sports in which Beaumont has ever sent a team to state. Until October 27 they had never even won a district championship in volleyball. “We’d never gotten out of the first gym” was how Coach Pat Royer put it. “This is crazy” was Beaumont senior middle Midori Harrison’s take. "We’ve never made it out of district and for us to be in the final four is amazing.” “It was awesome” added sophomore outside hitter Toni Anderson. Beaumont has had strong volleyball teams for several years, ever since Royer arrived, but their district has been loaded. Last year they battled their way to a five game win over Walsh Jesuit only to fall in five to Padua Franciscan in the district final. Padua nipped Beaumont in five in the 2009 district final as well, en route to their second straight state championship. Walsh Jesuit and Kenston moved up to Division I this year, and Beaumont and Padua landed in different districts with Padua in another region. Beaumont was steeped in young, talented athletes, many with open nationals club experience, and the juxtaposition of that with redistricting afforded a unique “window of opportunity” Coach Royer had said at the start of the season. He had also said “You’ve got to take the window when it’s open because it will close sometime”. After Beaumont won their district in straight sets over Chagrin Falls and took down 24-2 Canfield 25-18, 25-12, 25-15 in the regional semifinal, they found themselves at a window from which, if they looked hard enough, they could see Fairborn. Standing in their way was Lake Catholic. The two teams had already faced off three times and that gave Beaumont confidence, according to University of South Florida recruit Midori Harrison. “We’d beaten them once, they’d beaten us twice. We knew their team. We felt good going in”. Beaumont had won their first encounter at Lake Catholic, lost the second at home in five and fallen 25-17, 25-20 in a tournament at Gilmour Academy on October 15. Lake Catholic’s seven losses all came against top teams, and the Cougars had beaten Division I fifth ranked Magnificat twice. Game one was a pitched seesaw battle featuring 11 ties and 8 lead changes. The teams got off to a jittery start with Beaumont scoring on a long serve, Lake Catholic junior outside Morgan Toman tipping an overpass, and both sides trading errors. Middle hitter Bridget Wilhelm and outside Kendall Young double blocked Lake Catholic to a 4-2 lead, and after a demolition by Cougar 6’0” sophomore setter/outside hitting sensation Abby Detering it was 5-3. Beaumont answered with four straight. Sophomore middle Molly Davet scored with a sinker from back court and then powered a blast right at someone. Junior middle Lauren Youngblood block killed and junior setter Katie Siefert dumped into midcourt. With the Blue Streaks up 8-7 another dump by Siefert brought in setter Kelsey Vallee who served an ace. Her next serve went wide, however, and Toman, after saving a partial block tip, tipped for one Cougar point and helped Dietering tie at 10 with a block. The Cougars went on top 11-10 and, after an exchange of leads, 15-13. Harrison sparked another run by the Blue Streaks with a slam into an empty back middle. She then served up five points, including an ace, as Youngblood and Siefert blocked for two, putting Beaumont in front 19-15. With the score 20-17, Blue Streaks libero Marin Jerse dug a dump from Dietering and Siefert sent a twisting back handed dump into Lake Catholic’s right front. Beaumont advanced to 22-17, but Lake Catholic cut the margin to 23-20 as the teams combined for four errors. Lake Catholic roared back to a tie when Toman tipped for a point, blocked Siefert for another and, after a timeout, tipped an overpass. Beaumont sophomore outside Courtney Bowman stopped the run with a clutch slam down the left, but Toman retied at 24 with a blast that was dug into the ceiling. When Beaumont touched the net, following a save by Cougar libero Sammy Kline, Lake Catholic was on the verge of a great comeback. Harrison, however, had other ideas and smashed a kill through the block on the left. Davet aced with a sinking liner. Dietering tried to retie it twice with powerful slams but Vallee dug both, and sophomore outside hitter Toni Anderson, subbing for Amy Pilat who was out with an illness, sealed the win with a hit that skipped off the net into a hole in Lake Catholic’s front middle. Detering and Toman put Lake Catholic up 2-0 in game two with tips. Bowman broke the ice for the Blue Streaks with a long-volley ending block, but Beaumont’s next attempt was out. Harrison, however, ended another intense volley with a kill, and Anderson caught fire, spiking for two kills and blocking for another while Youngblood demolished an overpass from a serve by Jerse. Beaumont was ahead 6-3. Detering ended the run with a slam that was blocked over and out, but that was as close as Lake Catholic would get. Beaumont upped their lead to 9-5, 15-7 and 17-8 as Youngblood, Davet and Bowman spiked kills and Harrison contributed a block. Blue Steak fans no doubt became a bit fidgety when the Cougars rattled off five straight with Wilhelm scoring on tips and Detering and senior outside Andrea Kaifesh contributing a block. But after a timeout, Lake Catholic was caught in the net defending a tip from Bowman. They then hit long and Beaumont moved ahead 22-15 and 24-16 on two-pointers. Sophomore outside Maggie Wilhelm scored the first of four straight Cougar points before Davet put the game away with a tip into front middle. Game three reverted to the frenzy of the first set with 13 ties and fives ties. Beaumont scored first on a service error and Toman tied with a quick set blast in the middle. Lake Catholic took the lead and advanced to 6-4 as Detering blasted a termination and served an ace. The Cougars led 10-7 after a kill by Maggie Wilhelm and another termination by Detering. Bowman and Davet scored the next four points as the Blue Streaks went up 11-10, but the Cougars retook the lead 14-11 on errors, and kills by Young. Beaumont tied at 16 and 17, but two errors put Lake Catholic atop 19-17. The Cougars, alas, gave up three points and Beaumont went back on top 21-19. Lake tied again on a sinking line drive serve by setter Mena Afsarifard that three digs could not return, and retook the lead 23-22 when Toman won a play at the net. Beaumont retied with a cross court shot that skipped off the net into a hole. Detering took Lake to game point with a termination but Youngblood blocked her next attempt. Beaumont hit wide right on their next volley and Youngblood tied again with a hit down left that was touched out. The next volley was fiercely fought and Bridget Wilhelm finally ended it in the Cougars’ favor with a slam off the block in the middle. And when junior outside Kara Oster pounded a cross court shot off a diving digger's hand, Lake Catholic’s was still defending their title. Still, the news was not good. Seven of 27 points of their points had come on Blue Streak service errors. Beaumont had otherwise outplayed them. Game four began badly for Lake Catholic as they fell behind 3-0 on hitting errors, albeit with help from Beaumont’s defense. Lake Catholic would have tied it at 1-1 had Bowman not alertly hit the floor for a save at the net, and Beaumont outlasted Lake Catholic on a long, intense third volley. With her team behind 5-2, Detering cratered another spike and Beaumont yielded two points to even things up. Following an exchange of points, and after Young dove to save a dump by Siefert, Youngblood tipped for one point and hammered a slam in the middle to give Beaumont another lead at 8-6. But Lake Catholic tied at nine on a line drive serve from Afsarifard that was dug under the net. Beaumont’s defense proved the difference again, when a pass by sophomore defensive specialist Macie Pifer fueled a well placed tip by Davet, and a diving save at the net by Jerse preceded a seam-splitting spike from the point by Harrison. The Blue Streaks advanced to 13-10 when Bowman slammed a back set from Vallee off a block. Detering answered that with a hammer to left corner and Young followed with a kill, but Bowman tipped into a hole to prevent another tie. And after a kill by Bridget Wilhelm, Youngblood pounded two points to fuel 2-1 spurts to 18-14. Detering intervened again, this time with a dump, but the Cougars hit long on the next volley, and Siefert took it to 20-15, dumping a bad pass from a teammate into a hole on the Cougar’s side of the net. Lake Catholic would score two of the next three, but the Blue Streaks were in the driver’s seat of a bus headed for Fairborn, and when a slam by Bowman sliced off a block and was dug into the stands there was no stopping them. Davet served up one of her power line drives and Anderson tipped the ensuing overpass straight down to make it 23-17. The Cougars went to Detering on the next volley, and Anderson and Harrison blocked her to bring about match point. Young kept Lake Catholic alive with a spike off the block. Then Bowman, an average hitter a year ago on the junior varsity, delivered the coup de grâce with a seam-splitting slam from right to back middle. It was her 14th kill of the match, making her the leader in that category on the day her team won its first regional. “I’m numb right now” was Coach Royer’s first reaction. “The hard schedule we played throughout the year really helped. We’ve been in these games”. Royer felt his team played “a lot smarter” than the last time the two teams met. “Our balanced attack opened things up, and whoever got the ball followed through”, he explained. Beaumont runs a total option offense and Royer said “whoever has the best match up gets the ball”. He summed it up with “It was a team effort and we played very good defense”. The Blue Streaks had taken their open window. ***************************************************************************** Stats: Beaumont: Assists: Katie Siefert 27, Kelsey Vallee 21; Digs: Marin Jerse, Macie Pifer 21, Molly Davet 13; Kills: Courtney Bowman 14, Lauren Youngblood 13, Davet 10, Midori Harrison 8, Toni Anderson 5; Blocks: Youngblood and Bowman 4; Anderson and Siefert 3; Aces: Davet 3
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