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| Tunstall to face Patrick County in finals |
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Tunstall's Kyla Moorefield (13) fires the ball past Bassett's Diandra Thompson in Thursday night's semifinal match at Bassett High School. Tunstall won in four games and advances to Patrick County in the Piedmont District title match Saturday. (Bulletin photo by Mike Wray)
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Friday, November 6, 2009
By JOHNNY BUCK - Bulletin Sports Editor
One thing’s for sure, Bassett didn’t play like the Piedmont District’s last-place volleyball team.
The fifth-seeded Lady Bengals gave the top-seeded Trojans all they could handle in a 3-1 semifinal loss at the district tournament Thursday night at Bassett. In fact, with a few small changes — a set here, a bump there — the Lady Bengals might have been playing Cinderella on the way to Saturday’s championship match.
“They gave a lot of effort tonight. I think we played really well. We didn’t execute with the game-points and things like we should have — we made a couple mental errors — but overall, I think they played really well as a team,” said BHS coach Dyan Ragsdale. “It’s the tournament, so it’s either win or go home. So they decided to come out here and play and bust their butts, and that’s what they did.”
BHS (6-14 overall, 2-6 PD) made its intentions known from the outset. Brooke Joyce, Michelle Martin and Tabatha White were the first players to serve for BHS, and when White finished up, the Bengals led 12-5.
Even when Tunstall (21-0, 8-0 PD) rallied to trail by just three, 15-12, the Lady Bengals closed on a 10-3 run for the win.
The second contest was much closer, but Tunstall still found itself one bad play away from trailing by two games.
With BHS leading 24-22, Martin’s first serve attempt hit the net and gave Tunstall possession. On the ensuing volley, it appeared Bassett played a ball that would have landed out of bounds along the sidelines, thereby giving BHS the game-winning point.
It never had the chance to hit the court, however, and when Tunstall won the point, the game was tied at 24.
The Lady Trojans then won the next two points to take the game, 26-24.
Afterward, THS coach Jackie Hardy was thoroughly impressed with Bassett’s play, but added that his veteran team probably had an edge in the tight second contest.
“I knew it. I think my girls knew it, that that was really a big game in the match. The thing about my girls is they know how to play tight ball games. We’ve done it all year,” said Hardy, whose team also won the fourth game by the same 26-24 score. “They don’t get uptight. They know that they have to play as hard as they can, but they just keep their cool. That’s the way you have to play when you get in a tight match, and I think we’ve learned that.”
Tunstall seemed to buckle down in the third game, keeping a comfortable lead over Bassett until White stepped to the service line and led her team on a three-point run to make the score 21-19.
But after THS broke her serve on a Kyla Moorefield spike, Megan Dillion held serve to get the 25-19 win.
Bassett would threaten again, however.
“We fought back. We didn’t come out really strong in the third game, but we fought back in the fourth game,” said Ragsdale. “We just didn’t execute in the final points of the games.”
Bassett jumped out to a 5-2 advantage and held the lead until Tunstall tied the contest at 24 when Kelsey Smith’s serve landed inbounds along the sideline for an ace.
Smith, Tunstall’s best net player, served twice more to finish the match, and Dillion won both points with aggressive net play, spiking the last ball for the match winner.
Smith finished with 15 assists, seven blocks, six service points and one ace. Distad had 11 service points, one ace and 13 assists, while Kelsey Van Asch had 24 digs, five service points and an ace.
Tunstall’s 21 wins are the most in a single season for Hardy, who began coaching at THS in 1983. His teams have won eight of the last nine regular season district titles, and he said this group has a chance to be as good as any of them.
“One of the big things is that we play as a team. I know that Kelsey is really a good player, but I’ve got two great setters (Morgan Distad and Taylor Dix), I’ve got a great libero (Kelsey Van Asch), and everybody else just does their job,” he said.
Bassett, meanwhile, finished its season playing its best volleyball of the year. Thompson tallied 13 kills, 12 blocks and four digs in the match. Morgan Spangler had 23 assists, three blocks and two digs, while Joyce had six kills and two blocks.
The loss marked the final prep match for BHS seniors Spangler, Alexis Cunningham, Lauren Snead, Kayla Jervis and Joyce.
“Throughout the year, we’ve been getting down on ourselves, and we finally started to pick it up and come together at the end. So we ended it on a good note,” said Joyce. “I think that if we would’ve played all season like we played tonight and the last district game, we would’ve” had a much better record.
Thompson agreed.
“I feel like we just now found our place and found that we can play together, and we can beat good teams,” she said. “We just needed to start earlier.” |
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