Second Place State Finish

Written by Administrator | 21 April 2009

mellow4

Volleyball

Second Place in State

What an amazing ride this year has been in volleyball. The Lady Redwings have proven that they are a force to be reckoned with for at least a few more years to come. The games on Friday kept me on the edge of my seat. The girls easily defeated Santa Fe in two sets looking like nothing was going to stop them. During the match, we kept an eye on Sacred Heart which struggled a bit with Bell City, but defeated them in two. We went on to have trouble with Bell City's freshman starter who had springs for legs. She was really the only weapon they had, but they managed to split the set with us 1-1. We knew we had to beat Sacred Heart to move into the championship round. The first set, the girls struggled to make everything "click" and we dropped that one. The second set, we fought back with everything we had. Despite some sloppy plays, our tenacity won out and we split match 1-1 to play them again on Saturday.

Saturday was awesome. Most of the town showed up to support the girls and a large section of high school students kept the cheers and jeers going for all three sets. The first set, we dominated with big spikes, good passing, and poor play by Sacred Heart. I figured our girls would steamroll through the second set, but Sacred Heart got it together and their big girl kept hammering away at us on the line. Our girls hung in there, but couldn't pull a comeback off. The third set had the entire crowd into it as the score swung back and forth between the two teams. A couple of times Sacred Heart thought they had it in the bag and the Redwings would shake it off, get up, and come right back at them. We had good passing and some big spikes from all over the floor. A couple of points went on forever before one team or the other got into position score. Our final surge brought us back from being several points down to 23-24. Their big girl went up, but because we had taken everything she could dish out and fed it back to her, instead of spiking it, she flipped it over the heads of our two blockers. The crowd stood thinking we would get a good pass and get it back, but the ball was well-placed and landed on the floor. I am proud of the girls for the heart they played with on Saturday and their teamwork and dedication has made me proud to be a Redwing.

I heard several people complaining about a couple of bad calls by the refs. I agree they blew a couple. One bad call against our girls being in the net changed our lead on that final set from 8-5 to 7-6 which swung the momentum to Sacred Heart. But as I said to one board member after the game, "If we hadn't been so evenly matched, that one call wouldn't have mattered so much." He said, "Yeah, we could play them 10 matches and split it with them every time." Sports is about pride and building character in our youth. What better way to teach character than for our girls to persevere through this season and play such an outstanding final match that required strategy, teamwork, courage, fortitude, resolve, and strength. I am proud of their accomplishments this season and I don't believe two points will change the outstanding future of these young ladies. Shake their hand or give them a hug and tell them how proud you are of them as well.

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