The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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November 3, 2009

Prep volleyball

Bobcats pull away from Tigers

By Gary Fauber

Things were a little too close for Kelly Brogan’s liking.

Summers County’s coach watched as her team struggled but won the first two games of its Class AA Region 3, Section 1 volleyball match against Shady Spring. In the end, the Bobcats poured it on and showed why they are the tournament’s No. 1 seed.

The Bobcats pulled away for a 25-21, 25-20, 25-11 semifinal win Tuesday at Independence. The victory put Summers (36-4) into tonight’s championship match, which will start at about 7 p.m.

Summers got all it wanted from the Tigers, who have been playing well as of late under first-year coach Leah McCarus.

“Shady was just playing an excellent game,” Brogan said. “They decided to start dinking on us, where we usually are playing for the hit. We just had to try to adjust our coverage, but they were doing an excellent job against it.”

Shady essentially tried to keep the ball away from the Bobcats’ big hitters in twins Hannah and Hallie Gunnoe. The tactic worked to keep the first two games close, even if they didn’t quite come away with a win.

“The girls were playing really strong at the net,” McCarus said.

“We shut down their stronger attacks and caused them to have to tip a lot more.”

Things were different in the third game. Summers took control at the net and, along the way, scored eight straight points to pull away.

“We had our offense going pretty good then, and we made some adjustments on defense to try to cover it if they did the dinking again,” Brogan said. “It seemed like they let up a little bit.”

“I think the girls were a little bit tired and just let things that were out of their control fluster them and get in their heads,” McCarus said. “We had what we thought were some bad calls and they got down because of that. They quit and they beat themselves.”

Hallie Gunnoe had 15 kills, six blocks and 10 service points for the Bobcats. Teammate Leslie Mack contributed 11 kills and 10 service points.

Courtney Griffith and Tamra Stump each had seven kills for Shady. Rachael Smith had 20 assists, Stump four blocks and Kenna Smith eight digs.

The Tigers will take on Liberty at 5:30 p.m. today in the losers’ bracket.

“We have started playing much better (late in the season),” McCarus said. “We had been off and on. They have spurts where they play tremendously and then they have spurts where it’s the same thing (as Tuesday); they let the little things get to them. Once they get down, they have a hard time coming back.”

The Bobcats will play the Shady-Liberty winner. If Summers loses, a second and decisive match will be played 30 minutes later. The section winner and runner-up will move on to the regional tournament that begins at 10 a.m. Saturday at Summers County.

Summers is looking to get two wins better than last year, when it fell to Oak Glen in the state quarterfinals.

“I expected us to have a successful season,” Brogan said. “I don’t know if I expected (36-4). But we’ve played well all season long.

“We want to prove that we are a better team than what we showed (at the state tournament).”

— E-mail:

gfauber@register-herald.com

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