Westside (recap)

posted Oct 27, 2014, 10:03 AM by Bellaire Volleyball   [ updated Jan 25, 2015, 2:29 PM ]
In what might be the final test of Bellaire Volleyball before concluding the district play, the Lady Cardinals took on the Westside Wolves for the second time in the 2014 campaigns.

Freshmen
The Lady Cardinals traveled over to Coach Tomlinson’s part of town to face rival Westside Wolves on their home court.  In the first set, Mikaela Medina started the Lady Cardinals off with solid serving; while, Rein Dolormente and Annika Bohmann dominated at the net. Sharea Washington had a few key blocks for the Cardinals and Erin Eby, Nadia Rasheed, and Sydney Sizemore made sure no tips fell to the ground without some sort of effort.  The freshmen squad dismissed the Lady Wolves in the first set 25-17.

In the second set, plagued with passing and hitting errors, Bellaire dug themselves into a hole.  Then Megan Hafer got things going behind the serving line.  Westside made a slew of errors which allowed Bellaire to get right back into the game. Rein Dolormente lit up the Wolves at the net.  Nadia Rasheed and Erin Eby commandeered the serving line, winning the second set 25-16 and securing the match victory in a sweep.

JV
The upperclassmen on the JV team understand the Westside rivalry.  And, they understand how to attack the rival pack of Westside Wolves; swing hard and get kills.  And the Cardinal front attack, killed at will; Lilly Kirkland led with 7, Mary Lenz put 4 on the floor and middle blocker McKenna Compton dropped 3 kills on the Wolves.  Both JV setters had season highlight performances; Libby Lorenz dished 8 assists, made 2 kills of her own and contributed 2 digs.  Rachel Nolte added 7 assists and launched 2 aces.  When the Wolves found an opportunity to attack, Bellaire's back row turned it away; Gianna Haskin led the defense with 8 digs while Kacey Rosen added 4 digs.  The Lady Cardinals swept Westside in two sets, 25-15 25-15 in the Wolve's own den.  Coach Martin said after the game; "The team stayed focused and everyone played great!!!"


Varsity
The varsity team was ready to duplicate the results from earlier in the season and sweep the Westside Wolves like Freshmen and JV Bellaire squads had accomplished the day before.  A win over Westside would all but assure Bellaire a district title in 2014 and avenge last year's loss to the reigning district champion. 

The volleyball fans showed up at Butler Field House to support their teams in this rivalry match.  In the first set, the Lady Wolves were very fired up and swinging hard.  Bellaire's front row responded and turned away the effort with block after block after block.  Controlling the net took the teeth right out of the Wolf attack.  About the time Bellaire had amassed a 10 point lead midway through the first set; the Lady Cardinal attack began to really take over with crisp defense, precise passing and crushing hits.  After the first set, the Westside crowd had been muzzled and the Cardinals never looked back in sweeping Westside 25-11, 25-8, 25-9.  The net taken away, the Lady Wolves had difficulty mustering more than a back row attack and were out gunned in defending Bellaire's high velocity hitting.  Katie Fairbanks and her back line crew reloaded the Cardinal offense with on-target passing.  The Cardinals scored several aces to make performance on the serving line a highlight in this match.  The varsity squad effectively executed across multiple phases to achieve the win over a very solid Westside program.  After the match, Coach Clarke said: "it's always nice to have a win over a good rival team; but, there is plenty of room for improvement and we must continue to get better."