Volleyball: Douglas captures home invite

By Joe Kavanaugh, Journal correspondent | Sunday, October 19, 2008

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BOX ELDER — The championship game of the Douglas Invitational volleyball tournament Saturday afternoon came down to final match between the largest school in the tournament — the Class AA Douglas Lady Patriots — and the smallest — the Class B Philip Lady Scotties.

It was perhaps a fitting conclusion to a tournament in which balanced competition seemed to be the order of the day.

When the cheering finally quieted at Whitehead Gym, the host Patriots had emerged victorious, squeaking past the scrappy underdog Philip squad by scores of 26-24 and 31-29.

After winning a nailbiter of a first game, Douglas jumped out quickly in the second game,

12-6, and appeared to have taken control of the match. Undeterred, Philip (23-3 overall) elevated its game to the level that has made the Lady Scotties one of the top Class B teams in the state, and surged back behind booming kills by front line standouts senior Sierra Hook — 14 kills — and junior Marissa Mann — eight kills — and some uncharacteristic unforced service return errors by the Lady Patriots.

An initial Douglas time-out by Douglas coach, Jeff Nugent, failed to stem the tide as Philip moved ahead 19-16. Another quick time-out finally did and the two teams drew even at 20 all.

Then, Sierra Hook appeared ready to put the game away and three occasions put her team ahead with winning spikes, but each time Douglas fought back avoiding four straight game-ending points. First Kelsey Schwartz and then Chelsea Edwards converted feeds from Jordan McCausland into cut-shot cross-court winners. Finally at 30-29, a Sierra Hook spike sailed wide, ending the match.

“A great match,” said Philip coach Kim Bouman. “It came down to hitting winners, who could put the ball on the floor and who could find the biggest gap to put it into. Douglas did a great job of adjusting to what we hit. We could change things and win some points and they would quickly adjust their defense.”

Douglas coach, Jeff Nugent, was equally impressed with the play of Bauman’s team.

“It was a great, great match for the championship and I think proves that the right teams were there. I’ve known Kim Bouman for quite a long time, and she’s a fun coach to coach against. She was making moves, and we were making moves to try to respond. The nice thing about it was that we were able to make moves on the fly and the kids were able to respond quickly to them.”

Nugent had seen enough of Sierra Hook by the end of the match.

“An outstanding player and we knew going into the match that we would have to stop her, but we didn’t really shut her down. We hung in there and finally won with good balance, teamwork and good communication.”

Chelsea Edward led Douglas in kills with 13, and Kelsey Schwartz added 11 each feasting off the 71-of-71 setting performance of Jordan McCausland. Kayla Miller bolstered the back line with 11 digs.

Philip’s Sierra Hook put on a dominating performance at the net converting 24-of-27 attack chances with 14 kills. Setter Taylor Holman was solid all day contributing 26 assists in the championship game.

Douglas (19-7) earned its trip into the championship game by winning its pool and defeating Pine Ridge in the semifinals by scores of 25-22, 25-13, while Philip squeaked past Hot Springs in the other semifinal 25-22, 25-23.

In the Silver Bracket — matching the No. 2 teams from each pool — St. Thomas More bounced back to defeat Bennett County, 23-25, 28-26, 25-16. Todd County claimed the trophy in the Bronze bracket beating Hill City, 25-17, 25-16.