By Dave Morrison
For 90 minutes Thursday, Victory Baptist played the waiting game.
By the time the defending state champions took the floor against Rainelle in the quarterfinals of the West Virginia Christian Athletic Association volleyball tournament, the mood had gone from excited to sluggish.
And it showed.
Victory won the match, but it was hardly a stellar performance, given the emotional drain of a 90-minute delay and the normally inspired play of the Saints.
“We were supposed to play at 4:30 and the girls just ended up sitting around in the gym, waiting,” coach Mark Fizer said. “The overall mood, the team spirit, everything was gone.”
No such problem Friday in the semifinals.
Victory (15-2), productive at every position, breezed back into today’s state championship match, with a 25-5, 25-20, 25-13 straight set victory over Emmanual Christian (Clarksburg).
The Saints will battle Beth Haven, a team it defeated twice, the second time in four sets.
“I’m very happy with the play of the girls today,” Fizer said. “They wanted to show that they were better than what they showed (Thursday).”
The outcome of the match seemed determined early, as the Saints played everyone in a 25-5 opening-set victory.
The second was played closer to the vest, as Emmanual cut a 6-point lead down to 19-18. But Victory won six of the last eight points — including two off nice diving saves.
The third set was no contest as top-seeded Victory rolled 25-13.
“They were no different than any other team we’ve played,” said Emmanual coach Julie Maine. Her squad will play Elk Valley in today’s WVCAA consolation game at 9 a.m. and the title game pitting Victory and Beth Haven will start at about 11 a.m.
Maybe the difference was Victory was a different team than it showed Thursday.
“There is a lot of pressure (being the defending champion),” Fizer said. “There sure is for me. I’m not so sure about them. They kind of seem oblivious to it all.”
Several times the Saints made tough plays look routine and at times their serving overwhelmed Emmanual (13-7).
“I put pressure on them to do their best in every match, no matter who we are playing,” Fizer said. “If I keep that kind of pressure on them in (a regular-season) match then it’s going to be normal for any game that we play.”
— E-mail: demorrison@
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