Archrivals in every sport, Bellwood-Antis and Tyrone met on Thursday evening for their second volleyball match of the season. The two rivals opened the season back on Sept. 2 at Bellwood and now close out the regular season with only the District VI playoffs left on the schedule.
Played at the Tyrone Area Elementary School gym, Tyrone honored four senior girls prior to the start of the varsity match.
Lady Eagle seniors Sara Mease, Leah Otto, Stephanie Catich and Jeri Harper were honored for the time and service to the team and school.
The Bellwood-Antis Lady Blue Devils took three straight games to improve to 17-1, while the Lady Eagles finished the campaign with a 6-10 mark.
The win wasn’t easy for Bellwood-Antis with Tyrone keeping the scores close. B-A won the opening contest 25-21 and game three 25-20, sandwiched around a 25-15 win in game two.
Lindsay Dearing led the Lady Blue Devils with 14 service points. Stephanie Hatch added 13 kills and nine blocks, and Lauren Carter added 10 kills, seven blocks, seven digs, and four aces.
“Tyrone has always been a big game for us, and we wanted to end the regular season on a winning note,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Jennel Miller. “Tyrone put up a big block and served strong, but we were able to respond and win in three. This was a great way to end the regular season. We hope to continue to play at this strong level throughout the playoffs.”
Lady Eagle junior Katie Whitby led Tyrone with nine service points and contributed eight assists. Ashley Roth had tree kills and Jeri Harper had 14 digs.
“Bellwood has a nice team,” said Tyrone coach Dave Eckberg. “They’re tall in the middle and they were able to control the tempo of the match. We really weren’t in sync, which surprised me coming off what I thought was one of our best efforts of the year against Philipsburg. We struggled with the same thing that we’ve had problems with all season, and that’s putting quality swings on the ball. It just wasn’t there and you can only play defense so long. I missed some adjustments that could have been made, so I need to take responsibility for that also.”
The Bellwood-Antis junior varsity finished their season 16-2 by defeating the Lady Eagles junior varsity in two straight games by close scores of 28-26, 25-20.
Jess Parson led the Bellwood-Antis jayvees with eight service points and two aces.
