By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
BUCHANAN – Once again it was the youth and inexperience of Buchanan's varsity volleyball team that allowed River Valley to take a 3-0 Lakeland Conference win Wednesday night on the Lady Bucks home court.
The Mustangs went home with a three game sweep, winning 25-17, 25-17, 26-24. Wednesday night's match was a rematch of the two teams that pitted them against each other at Saturday's championship showdown of the Cassopolis tournament.
"Tonight we came out really focused and strong in the first game," Buchanan coach Lisa Holok said. "We pretty much went back and forth until they started stringing together those points together at the end of the first game. After the second loss I was really happy with the way we responded being down 2-0. I felt they came out with a lot of fight. I wasn't sure how they would respond to being in a situation like that. I felt they came out to prove a point and they did that. It would have been better if they would have finished the game. But the way they came out (in game three) showed me they have a lot of heart and that the drive is there, it just needs to be nurtured."
Finishing off the Mustangs in the third game of the match was something the Lady Bucks failed do. "It was the same problem that we had on Monday and over the weekend. We don't know how to close a game out," a disappointed Holok said after the Lady Bucks dropped their third game of the night.
What made the third game loss hurt more was the Lady Bucks had worked their way to a 20-8 lead before letting the lead slip away.
"I told them this is one of those games where it's hard and we want to at least get ourselves back into the game," Mustang coach Jim Ragosta said. "At least take away a little momentum away. Buchanan came out really strong that third game, they had a lot of momentum and it just picked up through the game. We just implemented a couple of different defenses that we practice everyday and to their credit they ran them text book perfect. All the credit goes to them."
Buchanan had worked their way to a 13-8 lead, Holly Lucas served up a seven point run for the Lady Bucks to push their advantage to 20-8. That's when Ragosta called a time out to regroup his team. River Valley's Abby Meyer stepped up and gave the Lady Mustangs a glimmer of hope stringing five serves together to cut the lead to 20-14.
Buchanan led 23-17, needing just two more points to force a fourth game, but Kali Lauzon and her team found a way to tie the game at 23 stringing together a six point run. Buchanan's Courtney Miller made it 24-23 with a kill to put the ball back on the Lady Bucks side but they were unable to finish off the Mustangs with Valley knotting the score at 24. Tina Braspenninckx came in to serve up River Valley's final two points to finish off the sweep by the Lady Mustangs with the 26-24 victory.
"We let strings of points happen before we can get the side-out. We are just not mentally tough enough to stop enough another team right now," Holok said. "We just have to play through our mistakes right now and be a lot smarter."
Courtney Miller 4 kills, 7 digs, 2 aces
Emily Ross 18 assists, 2 aces, 5 digs, 1 kill, 1 block
Jayme O'Bryant 4 kills, 12 digs, 2 aces
Holly Lucas 5 aces, 11 digs
Anna Callahan 1 ace, 3 kills, 2 blocks
Mattie Arndt 2 blocks, 6 kills
Katie Backus 1 block, 1 kill 9 2 digs
Lindsey Borr 17 digs, 4 aces