Wednesday, Nov. 04, 2009

Freeburg rolls past Columbia at volleyball sectional

Staunton eliminates Greenville with win

COLUMBIA -- The Freeburg Midgets have so much depth that Columbia coch Nikki Petrekovich felt like they had an extra player on the court.

The defending Class 2A champion Midgets spread the ball around to their entire arsenal of hitters in beating the Eagles 25-11, 25-13 Tuesday in the Columbia Volleyball Sectional.

"It's like, 'OK, have many players do they have on that floor,''' Petrekovich said. "Their whole front line is like 6-foot. I only have one girl that is 6-foot. So their height, they have that advantage. I've never seen so many tall girls on such a small school. I'm like, 'What are they putting in the (water) out there?'''

Colleen Yarber and Kelsey Robertson each had seven kills, Sam Kassing had five kills and Kayleigh Cox and Chelsi Hummert each had four kills for the Midgets.

"The whole season has been a team effort,'' Freeburg coach Lesa Bolt said. "We really use a balanced attack with a lot of girls, and we absolutely have to mix it up because if you don't, one of the teams will try to focus on that person and shut them down. We try to use all of our girls.''

The Midgets (35-2) will play the Staunton Bulldogs (23-5) at 7 p.m. Thursday in the championship match of the Class 2A Columbia Sectional.

The Bulldogs beat the Greenville Comets 26-24, 25-19 Tuesday in the other semifinal game.

The Eagles ended their season at 19-13. Three of their losses came to the Midgets.

"They'll go on and win state,'' Petrekovich predicted. "I tell my girls, 'If it was any other team, we'd have our chances.' They are a fantastic team.''

Bolt said the '09 Midgets are similiar to the '08 Midgets.

"We lost a few seniors from last year, but I think the thing that team got last year as far as the team effort and the drive has just rolled over,'' Bolt said. "All the new girls have been given that same bug, so they know what they have to do. They want to make their name and they want to get to that point, too.''

The Midgets zipped out to an 8-3 lead in the first game, and then used a seven-point service run by Maddy Hogan to open up a 17-7 advantage.

The Midgets closed out the game on a free ball by Robertson that rolled over the net and dropped in.

"We wanted to come out strong,'' Bolt said. "We know that Columbia is a good rival, a good opponent all the time and they'd be firing away.''

The Eagles stayed closed for a while in the second game, trailing only 8-7 after a kill by Megan Galle.

Leading 18-13, the Midgets reeled off the final seven points with Cox serving.

The final two points of the match came on aces by Cox.

Seniors Stephanie Mueller, Allie Joyner and Galle led the net attack for the Eagles.

"Allie Joyner was on tonight,'' Petrekovich said. "Stephanie Mueller did a good job considering she pretty much had a triple block on her, which doesn't happen a whole lot. They kind of took her out of the equation, but they didn't have any answer for Allie Joyner.''

All in all, Petrekovich said she was pleased with her first season as the Eagles' coach.

"I think we had a great season,'' Petrekovich said. "A first-year coach, I couldn't be any happier. We won my first regional title. We beat Gibault, and Gibault is a decent team as well.''

The Eagles will lose three seniors to graduation.

"I have a lot of juniors who have gotten a little bit of exprience form this year, so hopefully next year I'll have a solid, strong junior squad,'' Petrekovich said. "It's still going to be a rebuilding year for us. We don't have a lot of height. We're graduating all of our height. I think the tallest player we'll have next year is 5-10, and she's my setter.''