Lake County Sentinel
Riverside comes back to defeat South 3-1
BY TIM SHIRER
SPORTS EDITOR
Tuesday night at Willoughby South’s new gymnasium the Riverside Beavers volleyball team visited to take on the Rebels for a Premier Athletic Conference matchup. The Rebels entered the match 6-4 (4-2) and the Beavers sported a 9-2 (6-0) in their previous matches.
Every set was a battle beginning with the first set. The Beavers led for much of the first set even though it was a close battle. The largest lead for Riverside in the first set was at 20-13. South then rattled off four straight points capped off by a kill by junior middle hitter Carly Hall to cut it to 20-17 Riverside. The Rebels continued their hot play as they outscored the Beavers 8-3 to take the first set capped off by South’s junior specialist Abby Skitbreg’s dig to clinch the set 25-23.
Set number two was like match one but on opposite ends as the Rebels took the lead and led 23-17 until Riverside battled with two straight kills by junior right-side hitter Avery Tracz and a block by junior opposite hitter Brooke Schiele tied it at 23-23. A kill by junior Kate Tracz gave Riverside the 25-23 lead, South came back and the set 25-25 before junior Jen Sivak had two straight kills to end South’s comeback and give the Beavers the 27-25 win.
The third set was close and back forth early until Riverside took control at 15-12. The Rebels fought back closed the gap to 23-22 when Bri Jackam pitched a kill. The Rebels then tied the game at 24-24, but errors by South led to a loss in the set as the Beavers prevailed 26-24 to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
It was apparent early in the fourth set that the Beavers were now in control of the match as they jumped out to a 12-4 lead courtesy of a kill by Sivak. The Beavers stretched the lead to 23-11 before ending the set 25-13 and taking the match 3-1.
Riverside coach Alexandra Vires was happy with her team’s performance even though she though they were a little sluggish early on. She was happy to end the match in four games which has been a goal this season after a season a year ago when she mentioned that too many matches went five sets.
South coach Bill Behrend said, “They’re a good team, we’re a good team.” “we would make three good plays and then mistakes and that would completely deflate us. We were basically taking our momentum away from us.” He went on to say, “When we get on a roll we are dangerous, extremely dangerous. When we struggle, we’ll struggle a lot.
Next up for the two teams, Riverside plays Chardon at home at 6:30 p.m. and the Rebels host Madison at 6:30 p.m.
Justin Lada contributed to this story
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @IndiansTim Check out our High School Scoreboard
POSTED 09/17/2019 23:57
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Photos by Tim Shirer
