BUCHANAN — The Coloma Comets eliminated the Dowagiac volleyball team from the Class B District Tournament with a 3-0 win Thursday night.

The Comets defeated the Chieftains 25-19, 25-21 and 25-15 to advance to Saturday’s championship match against defending champion Berrien Springs. The Shamrocks advance with a 3-2 win over Lakeshore Wednesday.

Dowagiac, which won its first match in two years Tuesday to advance to the semifinals, battled the Comets through the first two sets.

The Chieftains led 4-1 in the opening set, but made too many mistakes to keep up with Coloma.

Three straight errors tied the set at 8-8 and then an ace by Madison Cullitan and a kill by Breanna Melrose gave the Comets the lead for good at 10-8.

Dowagiac committed five straight errors as the lead increased to 15-10. Another error sandwiched between a kill by Dana Jenkins and one by Erin Churchill seemed to put Coloma in control.

To their credit, the Chieftains battled back.

Helped by a couple of Coloma attack errors and aces by Hollie Olson and Brittany Williams, Dowagiac clawed its way back into the set, trailing 18-16. The lead was cut to 1-17 when Madison Proshwitz picked up a kill.

Back-to-back aces by Alexa Summers and a kill by Melrose ended any hopes of a Chieftain upset in the opening set.

The second set was a back-and-forth battle early on, but like the opening set, Dowagiac struggled in the middle portion, falling behind 18-11 as Churchill picked up a trio of kills and the Chieftains committed several errors.

Dowagiac resident Gabby Leonard gave the Comets the second set victory with a kill.

All the fight that the Chieftains had in the first two sets seemed to be gone for the third set.

Coloma rolled out to a 9-3 advantage on a combination of aces and kills.

But as it did in the first two sets, Dowagiac made another run at the Comets. A kill and an ace by Casey Weldy made it 11-8 and a kill by Williams and a Coloma net error made it an 11-10 advantage for the Comets.

Coloma quickly regrouped and went on to win 25-15 as Dowagiac eight consecutive errors.

“We came out strong the first set, ready to play,” Dowagiac coach Sara Lawrence said. “But then we make mistakes we start to go down just like we have all year.”

 

Class B District Volleyball

at Buchanan

Coloma d. Dowagiac 3-0

 

Statistics

Kills

Erin Churchill (C) 8

Breanna Melrose (C) 5

Brittany Williams (D) 3

Casey Weldy (D) 2

Madison Proshwitz (D) 2

 

Aces

Alexa Summers (C) 3

Weldy (D) 1

Williams (D) 1

 

Digs

Jessica Herthoge (D) 2

Katie Dantone (D) 2