FeedsBelleville’s valiant effort falls short at regionals
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Belleville Lady Tigers huddle up before a regional semifinal bout against Airport Carleton at Saline High School last Tuesday. Airport ended the Tigers' district championship season in three games (12-25, 18-25, 18-25).The Belleville Lady Tigers’ valiant season came to halt on Tuesday night, when they fell to Airport Carleton in three games of a Division 1 Region 2A semifinal at Saline.
The scores (12-25, 18-25, 18-25) didn’t reflect the effort Belleville showcased through the regular season or in the district tournament where the Tigers beat Ypsilanti, Romulus and a very tough John Glenn squad to nab the district crown and move on to the regional tournament.
Belleville didn’t necessarily play bad. Airport just proved to be a team that opponents can’t get behind early against.
At the start of the first game, the teams traded points before the Hornets went on a 8-4 spree and then a 9-2 rally to go up, 19-7. Belleville struggled to get back into the game before airport put the game away, 25-12.
The Lady Tigers faced a similar fate in the second game.
After taking a 2-0 lead, the Hornets responded with an 8-1 run that gave them the lead. They led by as many as nine points, but the Tigers refused to go away as they clawed their way back into the game, narrowing the gap, 17-22. Belleville’s flash of brilliance ended and Airport came away with the 25-18 victory and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five match.
In game-three Belleville raced to a 4-1 lead but couldn’t hang on. Service and hitting errors opened the door for the Hornets, who stormed back to take an 8-7 advantage. It was nip and tuck the rest of the way until Airport’s towering junior Jordan Erz caught fire. The middle hitter had three straight kills to put the Hornets up, 19-16. She added another kill to go up, 20-17.
Belleville senior Samantha Cole notched a block kill for Belleville’s final point to make it 18-21. Then Belleville knocked it out on the next set and Airport finished the game off with three unanswered points—two of them aces, including match point, by senior Nicole Olson.
“It just didn’t go our way today,” said Belleville Coach Sam Villa. “You can’t make mistakes and we made a lot of errors. We made a lot of hitting errors, a lot of blocking errors—we were in the net probably three, four times—serve and receive we didn’t pass the ball as well as we usually do.
“Airport is well coached and they hardly make any mistakes and if you make the errors they get on top of you,” he added. “It just wasn’t our day today and I wish it were.”
Senior hitter Ashley Blaszczak led the Tiger attack with seven kills. She had 12 digs on the night. Senior Megan Gohl had 18 digs and two aces and Shana Tooley added 12 digs and four aces. Senior Brittany Villa led the team with 19 assists and had one block.
“I told the girls to not be ashamed and keep their heads up even though it looked as bad as it did because we had a great season,” Coach Villa said. “We played a lot of good teams and played them close and we just didn’t get it done when it needed to get done. I have a great group of girls and I wish them all well.”
Belleville loses eight seniors to graduation in June, including Blaszczak, Shakiyla Price, Gohl, Brittany Villa, Tooley, Rachel Morrissey, Stacy Stoker and Cole.
“I wish all of my seniors well and they’ve had a good volleyball season at Belleville,” Sam Villa said. “In middle school I don’t think they lost any. At high school we’ve won league; we’ve won districts and they have nothing to be ashamed of. They had a good career in volleyball.”
Sam Villa returns four juniors: Kelsey Shuckel—who had six digs against Airport—Samantha Kole, Nicole Rodgers, Daysza Lewis, making the 2009 season a rebuilding year.
“Next year we’re going to be pretty young,” Sam Villa said. “That will hurt a little bit but that’s why we have an off-season to get them ready.”
