Stevenson helps Belleville West get past Belleville East in city volleyball match

With the match against Belleville East on the line on Thursday, the decision of who would get the ball was an easy one for Belleville West volleyball coach Austin Betz.

And as the Maroons’ Nick Stevenson had done throughout his four year high school career, he responded. End of story.

Stevenson put an end to a late Lancers comeback attempt with his 15th — and final — kill of the night as Belleville West defeated the rival Lancers 25-20, 25-23 in a big Southwestern Conference match.

Playing with its original starting lineup for the first time all season, Belleville East (2-3) trailed 24-20 in the second game. But a Maroons serving error followed by three straight points by East with junior Peter Bergt serving got the Lancers to within 24-23.

But Stevenson, an athletic 6-foot-3 outside hitter, took a pass from setter Sharron Clay and poured down a kill before the Lancers defense could react.

“Do you want to guess who led us in kills tonight?” a smiling and happy Betz asked following the match. “In a situation like that, we’re going to get the ball to Nick. He’s just so dangerous from anywhere on the court. I bet he had six or seven kills from the back row and defensively, he gets shots back in play that a lot of players wouldn’t touch.

“I wish he was a little more vocal, but he’s a quiet kid. He leads by example and the others respond.”

Clay dished out 15 assists while Tim Neff and Henry Holm added three kills each for the Maroons (7-7), The win moves Belleville West into what will be the Belleville City title match against Althoff on April 18.. Althoff defeated Belleville East (2-3) a week ago.

Key sequence

After struggling in back-to-back losses to Althoff and Edwardsville a week ago, the Lancers played much better on Thursday.

After losing a hard fought opening game, the Lancers played the Maroons even for much of the second game. Service winners by Bergt and Shemar Welch led the way early and when junior Andrew O’Bryan scored on a kill, the game was tied at 15.

The improved play by her team was just what Lancers coach Stefanie Gaubatz wanted to see. After three weeks of experimenting with different lineups, East had its first practice of the season with its full team on Wednesday.

“We’re still making too many unforced errors that we need to do a better job on and tonight we went with a different lineup. But considering that we had our first practice session of the season with everybody there on Wednesday, I thought we played better tonight. It will just take time,” Gaubatz said. “We want to be at our best in May.”

With the score tied at 15, West scored the next four points to take control. With the Lancers Logan Williams serving, Neff gave West the lead with a tip at the net.

West junior Trevor Pentland then hit a serve, East could not return and Neff followed with a kill into the right side of the Lancers court. When East missed a kill attempt seconds later, the Maroons were in command with a 19-15 lead.

“Sharron (Clay) had a good night of setting. He got the ball to Nick (Stevenson) in positions where he could score,’’ Betz said. “Another thing Nick does is that he makes his teammates better.

“Teams try so hard sometimes to contain Nick that it opens things up for some of our other hitters. Tim (Neff) and Henry (Holm) didn’t have a lot of kills tonight, but they are certainly capable.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 8:15 AM with the headline "Stevenson helps Belleville West get past Belleville East in city volleyball match."