Friday, October 29, 2010
By Pete Mollica
LISBON
Wellsville High volleyball coach Dan McKinstry is no stranger to regional tournament play — obviously — since he’ll be making his 10th appearance there next week with the Tigers.
Wellsville (19-7) captured the Division IV district championship on Thursday night, sweeping past Columbiana in three straight games, 25-19, 25-22 and 25-21.
It was McKinstry’s fourth district title with the Tigers. He won six district titles while he was coach at East Palestine.
“I’ve been coaching a long time and as I told my girls I’ve got more years behind me than I have ahead of me,” said McKinstry, now in his 14th season with the Tigers.
“I was a little concerned going into tonight because we had one of our worst practice sessions last night, but the girls came out and did the job here,” he added.
Columbiana, which finished the season 16-8, made the Tigers work for all three wins.
“We just couldn’t get over the hump tonight,” said Clippers coach Erin Heasley. “In every game we battled back to either a tie or a lead, but we just were never able to finish it off.”
“We had a good year and I’m proud of my team,” she added. “Wellsville is a very good team and they just had too many weapons for us tonight.”
Junior Noelle Amato was one of the bright spots for the Tigers as she led the way with 15 points, 16 assists and two aces on the night.
“Noelle is really the quarterback of this club and she had a great game tonight,” added McKinstry. “There are a lot of Division I schools looking at her right now.”
As good as the Tigers are they could be getting a lot better in the future since they have only one senior on the roster.
“We’got a lot of good players right on this bench who didn’t play much tonight and we’ve got a very good seventh and eighth grade program,” McKinstry said. “If they can stay focused they have a chance to be pretty good for quite a while.
Sophomore McKenna Pierson also had a big night for the Tigers as she finished with seven assists, two aces, eight kills and two blocks, while junior Rilee Livolsi added seven kills and sophomore Maleya Fultz finished with 16 points and seven kills.
Columbiana was led by junior Meredith Tirpak with seven points, three aces, seven kills and six blocks, while senior Jordan Stoddard added eight kills and sophomore Cassidy Stoddard had seven points and 15 assists. Senior Haley Goist finished with 33 digs.
In the opening game the Clippers took a 12-8 advantage before the Tigers made their move. With Amato serving Wellsville reeled off 14 straight points to take a 22-12 lead and the Clippers never recovered.
In the second game Columbiana had a 16-15 advantage, but again the Tigers came right back to score seven straight points and then held off the Clippers.
The final game saw Wellsville jump out to an 8-2 advaantage and although the Clippers battled back to make a game of it they never led in the contest.