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Beaver Local marches forward

Morning Journal/Joe Catullo Beaver Local’s Megan Buchheit has her eyes on the ball in front of coach Sarah Lowe and the Beaver Local bench on Thursday.

CALCUTTA — An undefeated record heading into Thursday night’s Division II sectional final meant nothing.

If Beaver Local could not defeat Dover, the season was lost.

“We don’t care about our record. We just care about how far we go, how we play and how we handle ourselves,” Beaver junior Carmen Pugliano said.

Top-seeded Beaver erased last season’s upset in sectionals and defeated No. 11 Dover 25-17, 25-14, 25-21. The Beavers remain undefeated at 23-0 and win their first sectional title since 1988. They will face seventh-seeded Claymont in a district semifinal at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

Since coach Sarah Lowe began eight years ago, one of her goals was to win a sectional championship.

“In terms of our record, I typically don’t report the record because a number does not necessarily measure your success,” she said. “It’s a matter of what you’re doing when you step out onto that floor day in and day out. To have an undefeated season is remarkable. To win a Buckeye 8 championship, an OVAC title and tonight a sectional championship are huge points on the season, but it’s a matter of going out there and getting better. That’s what keeps pushing us forward. That’s why we’re still playing.”

What helped Beaver against Dover (15-9) was game planning. Lowe said her team struggled with teams that are at least an hour away from Calcutta like Dover. Lowe saw the Tornadoes compete on Monday against Carrollton and knew what to do.

The biggest factor was blocking, an area Beaver needed to improve on since the season opener.

“Our blocking hasn’t been as consistent as we would have liked throughout the season,” Lowe said. “We’ve continually worked on it in our gym. Our middles are really taking ownership, and I think they definitely showed their improvement throughout the season.”

Dover, knowing little about the Beavers, tried that approach but failed.

“Our plan was to use our middles since we haven’t seen their blocking,” Dover coach Jason Lambert said. “They played clean and efficient, and we didn’t. We had too many unforced errors, and that’s what cost us. We started off good with a lot of energy. Then we ran into a wall with about six straight errors. We then tried to play a little safer, and it didn’t work out.”

The Tornadoes jumped out to a quick 4-0 advantage in the first set and hung in there midway through before Beaver took over. The Beavers then dominated the second set before falling into a hole in the third. Dover led 20-19 before Beaver finished it off.

“Our girls have a lot of fight in them. They have a lot of aggressiveness and intensity when it comes down to the wire,” Lowe said. “We faced tough competition the past few weeks. It has really challenged us to up our game and rely on each teammate to capitalize on their roles.”

Madison Smith was a force in the middle with six blocks and six kills. Dakota Heaton had five kills and six digs. Megan Buchheit recorded seven assists, five kills and four digs. Reed McGeehan had 13 digs and three kills, while Pugliano added 12 digs.

For Dover, Brooke Laughlin collected eight kills, two digs, one block and one ace. Sawyer Campbell had nine assists and three digs. Jordyn Kiser tallied four kills, four digs and three blocks.

Getting back to the sectionals revolved around last year. The Beavers, seeded third, fell to No. 13 Carrollton in the opener. Nobody forgot about that any time soon.

“We definitely used that as our fire. We didn’t want a repeat of last year, so I think that’s what really got us together,” Pugliano said. “Last year we didn’t work together and kind of gave up when we were down. This year, if we get down, we lift each other back up.”

As soon as the season ended, Lowe began planning for this year. One improvement was scouting the opponents as much as possible, no matter how many miles away they are. Another was believing in one another.

“My mind never stops. As soon as that match ended, I began watching film and started figuring out what we needed to get better at for next year,” Lowe said. “We walked off that court losing to a 13-seeded team very frustrated. I knew we had to be better prepared.

“I’m very proud that the community is supporting our girls. Female sports don’t seem to get the same accolades that the men do. I understand because the men bring in more money, but Beaver Local is a great female environment. All of our fall female sports have done well this season. It’s awesome to see all of the female sports doing really well.”

Match notes

¯ Claymont defeated Cambridge 26-24, 25-10, 25-14 Thursday to win a sectional title. The winner of Beaver-Claymont will face either New Philadelphia or Meadowbrook for the district title.

Claymont defeated Meadowbrook twice and New Philadelphia once in the regular season.

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