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Lady Indians bow out of sectionals

Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
EBER — In 60 minutes, the Miami Trace Lady Panthers ended the season of the Hillsboro Lady Indians Monday evening. HHS dropped three straight games to their South Central Ohio League counterpart by scores of 25-11, 25-10 and 25-19 to bow out of the Division II SE District Sectional Semifinal.

The match, which took place at Miami Trace High School, was controlled by the Lady Panthers (8-10) from the first game on.

"This is what we tend to do. We start strong, then we'll lay off a little bit, and they we'll come back and play hard," HHS coach Nikki Dunham said. "It's been a season … a lot of game we've (been close) and the games we don't play together are the games they tend to get us pretty good, and that happened tonight.

"They (MT) had some good hits, and we struggled with passing tonight. Miami Trace did a good job."

Both teams battled to a tied score four times in the first game at scores of 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 and 5-5. After the score was tied at five, MT didn't trail for the remainder of the first game.

Hillsboro captain McCaylee Priest was first to break the tied score at three early on with an ace, and the score was tied at five when Lily Marshall scored a point for HHS. After HHS hit their own net to give MT a 6-5 advantage, MT built a large lead to go ahead 13-7, then later in the match at 21-10 with three consecutive aces by Rachel Smith.

The first game (25-11) was ended with four consecutive points by the Lady Panthers, including points from Barbara Sears and Smith.

The Lady Panther serving was on mark Monday evening.

"We had some players come off the bench and do a really good job of (serving)," Miami Trace coach Megan Anderson said. "I was really pleased with the serving tonight. We've talked all year about coming in and attacking on the serve, and we did that tonight."

The second game began with MT jumping out to an 8-2 advantage, but of the two HHS points, one came from Priest tying the early score at 1-1.

"McCaylee had some good hits tonight, and Kaylee (Ballein) had some good sets," Dunham said.  

Of the first eight points by the Lady Panthers, two came from aces by Smith, along with points by Jordan Bonham and Mackenzie Ater.

Later in the second game, MT led 17-3 with help from the play at the front of the net by Morgan Wyckoff and a point by Ater. HHS broke the scoring streak by MT with a point by Marshall.

MT finished off the second game with points by Smith, Ater, and out-of-play hits by the Lady Indians. Also scoring in the second game for HHS was Heather Tipton on an ace. MT won the second game by a score of 25-10.

The third and what turned out to be the final game of the match was also the most competitive match of the sectional semifinal.

Though it was only tied twice in the early stages, Hillsboro did score 19 points.

MT began by taking an early 3-0 lead with points by Smith and Emily Ratliff. A block by Priest put HHS up 4-3, but a strong string of points put together by MT, including points from aces by Sears, consecutive spikes by Wyckoff and an ace from Natalie Miller put MT ahead 12-6.

Hillsboro's best string of points came from Cailin Wehrung and Kristen Juillerat (consecutive aces), which eventually put HHS within three points of tying the score at 13-10.

Later in the third game, HHS came within five points of tying the game with a tip at the net from Priest. Her point came following a block by Trace's Sydney Grooms and an ace from Ratliff.

Later in the third game, HHS had points from Casey Dunham and Autumn Hacker. The third game, match and the Hillsboro season ended with a point from Wyckoff.
 
Miami Trace will now travel to Sheridan High School on Wednesday at 6 p.m. for a sectional final match. At the tournament draw, Sheridan was 13-6 overall.

"We are going to come in and work hard as we always do," Anderson said. "We will work on our serving and blocking. We want to make sure we are always playing the best we can play."

Hillsboro ends the season at 5-18 overall with two seniors (Priest and Ballein) playing their final match for HHS.
 
"They are awesome. The group is probably the most fun group of girls I've ever coached," Dunham said. "They are great kids, and I've coached my seniors since the seventh grade. Whatever they decide to do, they will go far."[[In-content Ad]]

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