TROY — The Cedarville Indians picked up their first girls high school postseason tournament win under coach Bobbi Jones on Tuesday Oct 17 at Troy High School. They swept their match against the Fairlawn Jets, winning by scores of 25-11, 25-17 and 25-11.
Legacy Christian also played in their tournament game losing to the Russia Raiders 25-5, 25-5 and 25-11.
The Cedarville Indians opened up the 2017 Division IV Volleyball tournament seeded seventh and they faced off against the Fairlawn Jets who were 18th. The Indians wasted no time jumping out to an early lead against the Jets taking the first set handily.
However, the Indians appeared to lose focus in the second set when they gave up five straight points to begin the set. A few plays later and the Jets still held the lead at 10-5. Coach Jones had seen enough and called a timeout to talk with her team.
“I told them that we needed to just play our game and stay focused,” Jones said. “I talked with my best hitter Sara Beste, who had jammed her finger and we got that fixed up and that helped her to refocus.”
The team came out of the timeout and put up nine unanswered points to get back into control of the game. This momentum helped them to finish off the set and ultimately the match.
“This was the first tournament win under my coaching and I started back in the early 2000’s,” Jones said. “So the girls were real pumped to get the win tonight.”
Cedarville will advance in the tournament and face Ansonia, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday Oct 21 at Troy High.
Legacy Christian was unable to pull off a win. The Knights were swept by Russia in three sets by scores of 25-5, 25-5 and 25-11. It was a rough ending to a season where they went 7-13.
“The girls have done a really good job of always being determined this year,” Legacy Christian coach Amy Pickens said. “It doesn’t matter if the score is 24-5 or 24-24, they always work hard and I am proud of them for that.”
The coach and team will turn their focus to next year and try to improve on the season they just completed.
“One of the things that we would need to work on for next year is our approach to the net,” Pickens said. “We need to take a more confident approach next season.”
