Volleyball: Bureau Valley has Hall’s number for third time

SPRING VALLEY – It’s only hard to beat a team three times in a season if you believe it is hard.

The Bureau Valley Storm didn’t buy into that theory, scoring the first nine points of the night and going on to defeat host Hall for the third time in two weeks in Monday’s Class 2A regional opener, 25-16, 25-13.

“You just go out and play the game. You’ve just got to play the game,” BV coach Caitlyn DeMay said. “Everybody starts at 0-0, and you have to just do what you know what to do.”

BV junior Ella Thacker said, “Everybody always says that (third time is hard), but I think as long as you don’t let that get into your head, it doesn’t affect you. I think if we played like we have been, we were going to be fine.”

BV senior Mallory Endress said some of the team was nervous facing Hall for the third time.

“I wasn’t [nervous] really. I think we played them better than the last time,” she said.

The Storm (14-19) will play regional favorite Sherrard (28-7), the No. 2 sub-sectional seed, in Tuesday’s first semifinal at 6 p.m.

DeMay said it gave the Storm momentum by jumping out to a 9-0 lead in the first game all on the serving of Endress, who finished the night with a match-high 18 points.

“Take the ballgame early. Take initiative. Be on top early, and that’s what we did,” DeMay said.

While DeMay signals for zones for most of the Storm to serve to, Endress said she has a green light to serve where she feels best.

“When [DeMay] tries to do that, I end up messing up, so I just kind of serve and hit the holes in their court,” she said with a laugh.

While it helped getting the early big lead, Endress said it may have made the Storm a little too confident.

Hall fought back within 11-7 on two straight kills by sophomore Kennedy Wozniak and 14-12 on a pair of hits by Jennifer Casford.

Alaina Wasilewski sided out for the Storm with a kill at 15-12. A smash by Thacker upped the Storm’s lead to 20-14 and a kill by freshman Keely Lawson ended it at 25-16.

“We’ve always had a hard time coming back from being down by so much. We haven’t had that fight to get back,” Hall coach Carolyn Bryant said.

The Storm followed a similar path to victory in the second game by scoring the first five points. An ace by junior setter Kate Salisbury made it 13-5 and a kill by Thacker sent the Storm to a 22-9 edge.

Thacker, who led the Storm with 11 kills, finished off the game and match with an ace at 25-13, sending the Storm into battle against Sherrard, the Three Rivers West champion, Tuesday night.

“Can’t wait til tomorrow night and see what happens,” DeMay said. “I’m excited to kind of show Sherrard a little bit what this side of the conference is [about]. But you have to play the game and have fun about it.”

Thacker is excited to get to play in regionals after sitting alongside her mom, Heather, when she helped coach the Storm.

“It’s my first year in regionals, so now it’s like our time to do it. We’ve always seen older girls do it,” she said. “It’s pretty cool to see that I’m standing where I was watching with my mom when she was coaching.”

BV had contributions up and down the lineup, including an all-around game by Salisbury, who had 14 assists, four kills, five digs, six points and two aces. Other leaders were Wasilewski (6 blocks, 3 kills), Keely Lawson (4 kills), Emma Stabler (3 kills, 4 digs, 4 points) and Callie Michlig (3 digs).

Hall bows out at 7-23-1 in its first year under Bryant.

“I thought we might have had a chance. I said before it’s hard to beat a team three times in a row. I just don’t think we were mentally prepared,” she said. “They get down on themselves too easily and that’s been a big thing we didn’t overcome this year.”

• No. 6 Princeton (12-18), a defending regional champ, will face No. 3 Rockridge (20-11-1) in Tuesday’s second semifinal at 7 p.m.