Girls Volleyball
Sweet Home, Lake Shore meet again for Class A title
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Sweet Home's Krista Prentice hits over Grand Island's Jessica Oyer and Tiffani Dickinson during the Lady Panthers' three-game Class A quarterfinal win last Wednesday. Sweet Home beat East in four games last Friday and played Lake Shore for the title Tuesday. Photo by Joe Eberle

Sweet Home and Lake Shore have been two of the top girls volleyball teams all season so it's no surprise they met in the Section VI Class A finals on Tuesday. Results were unavailable before The Bee went to press.

The match was a rematch of last year's section final, won by Sweet Home in five games. It was the fourth time both teams have faced each other this season. Sweet Home won twice over Lake Shore in league play and once in the Frontier Tournament.

Sweet Home, seeded No. 1 in Class A, defeated eighth-seed Grand Island, 25-14, 25-20, 25-15, on Wednesday in the quarterfinals and survived fourth-seed Williamsville East, 25-17, 25-21, 23-25, 25-22, in the semifinals.

Lake Shore, seeded third, beat eleventh-seed Hamburg, 25-11, 25-16, 25-12, in the quarterfinals and second-seed Starpoint, 24-26, 25-23, 25-15, 23-25, 25-18, in the semifinals.

Williamsville East made Sweet Home work for their victory. The Lady Panthers trailed East, 16-8 in game three but after a timeout, eventually tied it at 23-23. East went on to win the game. The Lady Flames led 17-12 in game four but lost.

"It was a 50-50 game where it was one point here, one point there," said East coach Scott Wright. "If we won game four, then it was anybody's ball game."

Wright lauded the work of East seniors Kaitlin Roseti (middle), Michelle Brent (outside hitter) and Meghan Scheidemann (right side hitter) Kathryn Drzewiecki (libero) and junior Mary Mc- Daniel (setter) as well as Sweet Home setter Kelsey Maving.

"We put them into a lot of bad passing opportunities between serve receive and making them play defense and it's amazing how she was able to hit," Wright said of Maving.

Sweet Home coach Breean Trampasso said East played well.

"They made very few mistakes and made us really step up and minimize our errors," she said.

Outside hitter Krista Prentice led Sweet Home with 18 kills. Shannon Memminger added six aces, including four to close out the match.

Trampasso said against Grand Island, Prentice led the team in kills. Memminger and Jill Reeser really stepped up with serves, she added.

To advance to the semifinals, East defeated thirteenth-seed West Seneca East, 28-26, 25-22, 25-21, 23-25 in the prequarterfinals on Oct. 30 and 25-17, 25-9, 25-12 over twelfth-seed Iroquois on Wednesday in the quarterfinals.

Wright said the Iroquois win was textbook volleyball.

"It was the best team volleyball we played up until that point," said Wright.

Wright credits his team's aggressiveness on offense for dominating Iroquois in the second and third games.

"We had them on their heels the whole game," said Wright. "We were much more aggressive than what we had been and played at a high level."

Roseti led East with 15 kills and seven blocks.

"She took away the middle of the court from them for half the time," Wright said.

Wright also thought senior outside hitter Courtney Rung played her best volleyball.

Wright said his team was in control of West Seneca East the entire way and credits the play of Brent, Scheidemann and Mc- Daniel for contributing towards the win.

East finished 6-3 in ECIC Division II and 11-6 overall. Seven of the team's 12 players graduate. They are Brent, Roseti, Rung, Scheidemann, Drzewiecki, Jessica Hernandez, and Larissa Martens.

"I think if the girls look back at it, they will be pretty happy with how they did," said Wright. "We came in third at the Frontier Tournament, the highest we have ever placed in a major tournament, and were ranked in the top ten all year."

Williamsville North

After not winning a match last season, Williamsville North's goal this year was to win one match.

North did more than that, winning two regular season matches over Orchard Park and West Seneca West and knocking off seventh-seed Niagara-Wheatfield, 22-25, 25-22, 30-28, 25-18, in the Class AA prequarterfinals on Oct. 30.

"Everybody played well," said North coach Tom Sproull. "We passed well and moved well as a team and did not give them any points."

North, seeded tenth, then fell to second-seed Kenmore West, 16-25, 20-25, 16-25, on Wednesday in the quarterfinals.

"The first match was semi tight," said North coach Tom Sproull. "It was 12-12 then they rung off five to seven points in a row. In the second game, we led 16-14, they called a timeout and we fell apart... Overall as a team, they were more consistent with their passes."

Sproull lauded the work from Jen Pawlak, Erin Sweeney, Krista Freiling, and Jackie Frieling.

Sproull said Krista Frieling had 125 kills in the regular season. She is one of five seniors graduating. Jackie Fassl, Emily Hoy, Cara Sweeney and Julie Timm also are graduating.

North finished 3-9.

"It's hard to complain," said Sproull. "Defensively, our girls improved a lot. They came a long way and started believing they could win and had a lot of tight matches... If you take a step back, it was amazing to be playing Kenmore West in the playoffs."

Williamsville South

South, seeded tenth, defeated Kenmore East, 25-22, 25-21, 23-25, 25-20 in the Class A prequarterfinals but lost 6-25, 20-25, 15-25 to second-seed Starpoint on Wednesday in the Class A quarterfinals.

South defeated Williamsville East in five games on Oct. 26 but did not count towards standings. Also, Jocelyn VanOpdorp was named to the all-tournament team at the North Tonawanda Tournament. She is one of five senior starters graduating. Other seniors are Chelsea Plimpton, Nicolette Neenos, Katy Taborda and Katie Kraus. Neenos led the team in kills.

South finished 4-5 in ECIC Division II.

Amherst Central

Amherst had the earliest exit out of all Town of Amherst girl volleyball teams, losing in the Class A prequarterfinals to Grand Island, 25-22, 22-25, 25-15, 23-25, 20-25. Amherst was seeded ninth, Grand Island was eighth.

"They wanted it more than my team I think," said Amherst coach Jennifer Loretto.

Loretto said her team couldn't stop middle hitter Courtney Donovan.

Loretto lauded the work of middle hitter Liz Reid, outside hitter Jodi Battaglia and libero Shannon McGuire.

Amherst finished 5-4 in ECIC Division II, 5-7 overall.

Battaglia and Reid led the team in kills and blocks. Battaglia and McGuire led the team in digs.

"Overall, I thought we had a decent season and could have been a little better," said Loretto.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com