Lots of people, little noise

The irresistible force continued on tonight, defeating the Southside Torchpersons (a little political correctness for you) in three straight, 25-6, 25-12, 25-23.

This was a workperson-like effort (PC spasm again) in that the girls didn't show much fire for this game - in fact, the most fire was for Tina getting a kill in the third game. But the girls did play well. They established their dominance in the first game. This one wasn't one of those games where the girls jumped out to huge lead and then lost interest at the end of the game. This was a good, focused effort from the beginning to end. Most of our point were on kills rather than errors by the opponent, so it was a little more entertaining than some of their other blowouts this season.

The second game was more like the ones the girls have played against inferior opponents. Also, Coach Carr subbed a little more this game, and Jessica Neely was called up from JV to play. Anyway, the girls committed more errors in this game, and also Southside got more good passes to the setter which led to more kills. Also, their middle hitter started blocking, and Calumet couldn't pull away early. After a Southside ace and a hitting error by Taylor, the score was 15-12, Calumet. But then the Patriots ran off ten straight points, mainly behind the serving of Taylor, the girls had game two. Taylor broke out the jump serve to finish things off, and she had three straight aces to end the set.

Then Coach really got creative with the lineup, with Tina playing all the way around and Jessica getting playing time. Calumet fell behind early, 6-2, and stayed about that far behind for a considerable part of the game. The girls were down 15-10 and 16-12 before they started their comeback. Kills by Kara and an ace by Rachel contributed to the girls going ahead 19-18. Then Jessi Stas started pounding the ball but so did Southside's middle hitter. We also had some hitting errors, so the score remained close. But at 23-22 Southside, Faith put one down, Tina scored on a non-returnable downball, and Southside hit it into the net to complete the game.

Recognition of the seniors followed, of which there were about 112. OK, that was a little exaggeration. Rev. Broadbent handled the emcee duties for these festivities - thank you, pastor. Then the junior high and JVB team played Victory's teams to close out the night.

State semifinals on Friday night against Goshen Blue Blazers in Lafayette at 6:30 EDT, 5:30 our time. If we win, we play for the state championship on Saturday. Come on out and make some noise.