Gilmour Academy stops Springfield

The Lancers ousted the Tigers for the second straight year in the regional semifinals.

By JOHN KOVACH

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

BARBERTON — The object in volleyball is to hit the ball where they aren’t, and hit it very hard if necessary.

And that’s exactly what Gilmour Academy did to Springfield Wednesday night, in a Division III regional semifinal at Barberton High School.

From the beginning, Gilmour was able to spot the open spaces in Springfield’s side of the court, and place their shots with either line drives or soft taps, depending on what was needed to score a point.

Conversely, although the Tigers did manage to get off some good shots, the Lancers closed the gaps quickly to fill the voids, and then make timely, point-scoring returns in the process.

The result: Gilmour sailed past Springfield in three games for the second straight year, 25-14, 25-13, 25-17, to advance to Saturday’s regional final.

The Lancers (24-2) will oppose Smithville (25-2), which turned back Cleveland Villa-Angela St. Joseph in the first semifinal, 25-18, 27-25, 25-21.

Coach Jeff Grzybowski of Gilmour Academy (22-3), whose Lancers are in the regional final for the fourth straight year, said his team’s serving and Springfield’s inability to return the Lancers’ balls were the differences in the match.

“They probably never have seen a team that served as aggressively as we did,” said Grzybowski, whose team lost in the state final last season and in the state semifinals two years ago. “We also were serving floaters that had subtle movements. They were like knuckleballs. We were putting spins on them.

“When you don’t see serves like that in practice, it is hard to adjust.

Coach Bill Knight of Springfield (22-2), the dean of Youngstown-area volleyball coaches, said his team “came out flat” and that the defense was unable to read Gilmour’s setter as to where she was going to place the ball, and was slower than usual getting to the ball.

“The setter disguised where she was going to put the ball real well, and our players were not trusting their instincts,” said Knight. “We were making lot of mental mistakes. We couldn’t get our blocks going at all. And that’s one of our strong points. We were a half-second slower getting to where we should have been.

“[But] once we started to receive the ball, we did hit the ball back hard.”

Gilmour was led by Mary Kramer with 13 kills, four aces and 10 digs, while Sarah Siediak added 16 digs, Brittany Link 33 assists and Megan Diemer six kills.

Kallie Rogers led Springfield with four points, two aces and 18 assists while Larissa Santangelo contributed four kills and Ashley Davis six kills.

Knight said that this is one of his best seasons, noting he had previous records of 22-2 and 24-3.

His Tigers also went unbeaten in the Inter Tri-County League this year to win their second straight Tier One title.

kovach@vindy.com