VOLLEYBALL Back in the final: Hubbard seeking 7th championship

The Eagles topped Poland to advance to their ninth straight district final.
By ERIC HAMILTON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BOARDMAN -- Building a successful program is one thing, but what Hubbard High volleyball coach Chuck Montgomery has put together is borderline ridiculous.
For the ninth straight year, the Eagles will play for a Division II district championship when they take on top-seeded Crestwood Thursday at 7 p.m. at Boardman High School.
Hubbard will be chasing its seventh district title since 1996, the year it began the impressive run in the finals. The Eagles are 6-2 when appearing in the finals, falling in 2001 and 2003.
Thursday's title game between Hubbard (20-5) and Crestwood (23-1) will be a rematch of the 2000 championship, which the Eagles claimed.
"We have a good program and our players always play hard," said Montgomery, after his squad defeated Poland 25-20, 25-21, 24-26, 25-20 in Tuesday night's first semifinal. "The girls through the years have bought into the belief that defense wins championships and they showed it again tonight."
In the second semifinal, Crestwood powered its way past 2003 district champion Salem by scores of 25-16, 22-25, 25-22, 25-20.
Hubbard-Poland
Against Poland, Hubbard jumped out to a two games to none advantage, thanks to stellar defensive play and key scoring runs. In game one, the Eagles broke a 15-15 tie with five straight points, going ahead 20-15 and riding that five-point advantage to the win.
In game two, Hubbard broke open a 12-12 contest with an 8-1 run and fought off a Poland surge to win 25-21.
Dee Muransky rallied the Bulldogs in the third, as Poland outscored Hubbard 5-3 down the stretch to pull out a 26-24 win.
But Hubbard's big-game experience proved too much for the younger Poland squad in the fourth and final game. Junior Callie Oyler took the serve with the Eagles ahead 21-19 and hammered out four straight service points to clinch Hubbard's 20th victory of the season.
"Callie's been practicing that jump serve all year and we wanted to get to the point that she could be consistent by the time districts rolled around," said Montgomery. "We played really good defense tonight and our hitters found the holes when they needed to."
Poland started three sophomores and three seniors and coach Fred Smith was already looking ahead to next season.
"This is a hard loss, but we hung in there for a while," he said. "We just made too many mental mistakes. Hubbard controlled the ball well and we didn't. But we're young and getting better, so there's always next year."
Oyler led Hubbard with seven points, five aces and 14 kills. Kate Tobey added 13 points, 15 kills and seven digs, while Corrie Gasser registered eight points and 42 assists.
Poland (16-9) was paced by Muransky's 13 points, 17 kills and five aces. Ashley Conger added 19 assists, 15 digs and 11 kills.
Salem-Crestwood
In the nightcap, Salem and Crestwood split the first two games, with the Quakers taking the second to knot the match at 1-1.
But in the third game, Crestwood began to take control. Salem led the Red Devils 11-8 in the contest, but lost the momentum as Crestwood answered with an 8-0 surge.
The top seed took a 14-11 advantage and despite a Salem rally, made the cushion stand. Crestwood scored the final two points of the game to win 25-22.
The fourth game was all Red Devils. They jumped out to a quick 10-3 lead, thanks to sophomore hitters Melisa Baringer and Britt Mayle. The duo came through with some clutch kills during the rally to build Crestwood's confidence.
Salem wasn't finished, however. The Quakers roared back, cutting the deficit to 22-20 with inspired play from Katie Finnicum.
But the rally proved to be too late, as Crestwood scored the final three points of the match to claim a 25-20 victory and a berth in the district title game against Hubbard.
"The loss would be a little easier to swallow if we had come to play tonight," said Salem coach Don Conser, whose squad finishes the season with an 18-6 record. "We played our 'C' game tonight, but needed our 'A' game.
"We just didn't come ready to play mentally tonight and that's really what hurt us. Considering how we played, we had a pretty good effort, but it wasn't enough."
Finnicum paced Salem with 12 kills and one block. Sarah Hamilton added 11 kills and three blocks, while Brittany Gregory tallied eight kills and one block.