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Boardman volleyball team hangs with Hoover
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Boardman's Casie Saunders, left, Keyleigh Lipke (17) Amanda Volsin (14) cover the ball against Hoover during their game at Boardman on Tuesday night.
By JOHN BASSETTI
BOARDMAN
Going against an unbeaten team can be daunting and such was the case for Boardman’s volleyball team when the Spartans faced North Canton Hoover Tuesday night.
After Hoover won the opening game, Boardman evened the match at 1-1, before falling behind in the third game, 2-1. In the all-important fourth game, the teams were close.
However, after Hoover knotted the score at 24-24, the Vikings made the last two points to close the door on the home court team.
Hoover’s 25-19, 22-25, 25-20, 26-24 victory pushed the visiting Vikings to 18-0 and 11-0 in the Federal League.
But Hoover coach Mia Thomas said her girls were frustrated.
“They [Boardman] keep the ball in play and force you to make mistakes, which we did quite a bit,” Thomas said of 18 block errors in the third game alone. “That’s more than we make in entire matches. That’s frustrating for us.”
Although Hoover beat Boardman earlier, also in four games, Thomas called Boardman (9-6, 6-5) a tough opponent, especially on the road.
“Their serve-receive is great, every ball goes to the center, they have lots of choices and they stay aggressive, even when they’re behind. That’s something we need to work on. We tend to be more conservative and more reluctant to be aggressive on defense.”
Eight of Hoover’s 13 players are seniors, so Thomas considers their leadership a vital factor in the team’s success.
“They’re very relaxed and don’t tend to get nearly as uptight about things as we [coaches]. It makes us extremely nervous because they’re so relaxed. They believe they can do it, they believe they’re going to come back and they believe they can win games. I think that’s the key for them.”
Three of the seniors: 6-2 right-side hitter Becca Moore, 6-0 middle hitter Laura Wheeler and 5-9 outside hitter Maggie Desrosiers make a formidable force for any opponent.
Desrosiers had 14 service points and 23 kills, while Wheeler had nine blocks. Nicole Cunningham had 20 digs and Amy Bontrager had 24 assists.
Bontrager, a setter, gave Hoover a 25-24 lead in the final game before Kara Riccardi blocked Stephanie Sfara’s shot for the fourth game’s winning point.
Sfara had five points, 18 kills and 16 digs; Kristy Lake had five aces, 14 points, 12 kills and 10 digs; Amanda Volosin had eight points, seven kills, 16 digs and 21 assists and Lauren Davila had six kills and five blocks.
“We played better the second game because you never want to get down 2-0 to this team because they’re good,” said Boardman coach Glenn Sivak.
“We were right where we wanted to be at 1-1, but we dug too much of a hole the third game. That was the game that we wanted to get. We dug too much of a hole, but we came back.
“The girls played well, but not enough. The fourth game went back and forth, but you can’t give up the lead that late in the game. We’ve just got to finish games. It’s probably the one thing we’ve had a tough time on all year. We’ll get a lead on someone, then, against a team like this, you’ve just got to be ready to play and you’ve got to be ready to finish close games.”
Sivak said that his Spartans are playing well, but they’ve got to play better — and fast.
“Where we’re at right now — the last 6-7 games of the season — we’re playing well, but we’ve got to play better,” he said. “We’re going to see good teams the rest of the season and we’ll see good teams at districts. Offensively, we’re a good team. Defensively, we can’t have mistakes. We have some lapses that we can’t afford to have.”