Local Sports

Beaver Local hits tournament mode

CALCUTTA -- Beaver Local came into Monday’s Div. IV district semifinal volleyball match with East Liverpool having lost two of three to the Potters this season.

After losing in five sets to the Potters in the regular season finale on Oct. 15 at Potter Fieldhouse, the Beavers went to work on getting into tournament mode and did it pay off.

The Beavers never trailed in a 25-10, 25-14, 25-11 win over the Potters that took just 63 minutes to play.

“When you get to this point in the season this is what you’ve worked toward,” Beaver Local coach Sarah Lowe said. “All year long we’ve talked about being consistent, staying in the moment, keeping our heads focused and not letting serve-receive runs go. Tonight we capitalized on all of those things.”

Fourth-seeded Beaver Local (16-6) will face top-seeded River View (23-1) at 6 p.m. on Wednesday in a Div. IV district final at Tuscarawas Valley High School. The Black Bears were ranked fifth in Div. IV in the final Ohio High School Volleyball Coaches Association poll.

East Liverpool (14-8) won its first meeting at Beaver Local in five on Sept. 1. On Sept. 10 at Potter Fieldhouse, Beaver Local won in four. Even with the Oct. 15 match fresh in everyone’s minds, the Beavers and Potters were prepared for a much longer match in this meeting.

It just never materialized.

“When we beat them a week and a half ago the roles were reversed,” East Liverpool coach Dan McKinstry said. “We talked about it Friday and Saturday about how Beaver Local will have tremendous motivation since they were going to be at home. I don’t think they understood it. I think some of it was the youthfulness of our squad. We didn’t get off to a very good start with some missed early serves. It put us behind the 8 ball. They were clearly the better team tonight.”

McKinstry said he thought the match was out of the Potters’ hands about halfway through the second game.

“In the first game we scored two points on our serve,” McKinstry said. “In the second game, we scored three points on our serve. I told them we had to score some points off our serve. We had a long rally to start the match, but we didn’t win many of them after that.”

The Beaver Local attack was crisp all evening with Lily Schrieber putting down 11 kills and Oliva Opalenik, Madison Poppelriter, Leah Schrieber and Addie Thurik all producing six kills each. Macie Bourne also had five kills. On the serving front, Beaver Local had 10 aces as a team with Taylor Pease recording three and Leah Schrieber also tallying three.

“In practice we work on certain spots to hit and I think today we did really well on that,” Lily Schrieber said. “Coming into to this match we knew it was huge, so big hits are always a really good thing to have in this.”

Thurik kept the offense churning on the passing side as well with 17 assists. McKinnley Ferry also aided in that effort with 15 assists.

Thurik said the Beavers also set up a new defense for the Potters.

“We know all the spots they beat us,” Thurik said. “We’ve been working really hard in practice to learn the new defense. We wanted to come in ready because we didn’t want them slamming a ball down at us. It was our rival school. We already played them three times. We know what they had.”

Defensively Pease had 20 digs, while Gianna Congrove added 14.

Beaver Local went 22-3 a season ago and ran into River View in the district final. The Black Bears came away with a 24-26, 27-25, 25-16, 30-28 win in that one.

“They have a very strong offense,” Lowe said. “Their outside hitters are terrific. They also have a nice middle hitter and very solid defense with an extremely smart setter. Our girls are very well prepared and we have one more day to go over some final preparations. Last year’s match was a very nip and tuck match and I look forward to seeing what we can do with them on Wednesday.”

MATCH NOTES

• For the Potters, Cameron Conley had six assists. Addie Jones and Addie Smith had two kills each. Kendall Martin had five kills. Hailey Board, Addison Boyle and Melanie Watson all had two blocks. Peyton Tanner had three aces and four assists.

• No seniors played for East Liverpool on Monday.

• River View has lost only nine sets all season. Its only match loss of the season came to Berlin Hiland in four sets. Hiland is ranked sixth in the Div. VI state poll.

• River View beat Morgan 25-10, 25-15, 25-12 on Monday in its district semifinal.

• River View is led by senior Layla Olinger (243 kills) and freshman Josie Adams (240 kills).