Lady Rockets fall in semifinals, 3-0
WEST VIEW – After winning a close quarterfinal match on Tuesday night, Jefferson-Morgan had to return to Class A WPIAL playoff action Thursday night against top-seeded West Shamokin. It may have been too much too ask in a short period of time for the Lady Rockets as they dropped the semifinal match to the Lady Wolves, 3-0.
“We had an emotional match the last round and it was tough to come right back and play against such a good team in West Shamokin,” Jefferson-Morgan coach Ron Headlee said. “I thought we were right there for most of the night. We just weren’t able to put the ball away enough when we had the chance.”
The Lady Rockets’ season does not end, though, as they drop to a consolation game on noon Saturday against the loser of the other semifinal match with the winner joining the two finalists in the PIAA championship tournament.
“We look forward to playing another game,” Headlee said. “We’ll regroup and I think if we can play error-free, we’ll have a good chance.”
In Game 1, Jefferson-Morgan led early on in a close battle that saw 14 ties. West Shamokin took its first lead at 10-9 on Paige Baker’s spike. It was a sign of things to come as Baker led all hitters with 22 kills.
The Lady Rockets regained the lead at 14-13 on Mabel Culp’s ace, but West Shamokin took its biggest lead at 19-16 that forced Headlee to call a timeout.
“We had trouble with their front line,” Headlee said. “We needed to play really good defense to combat their size.”
Marissa Cameron’s ace closed the gap for the Lady Rockets at 20-18, but Breanna Wilson’s spike extended the Lady Wolves’ lead to 21-18. A marathon volley ended in a tap-in winner for West Shamokin, and a 22-18 lead.
The Lady Rockets tore off a 3-0 run to close the gap at 22-21, but another Baker spike extended the Lady Wolves’ lead to 23-20 and Headlee called his final timeout of the first game.
A long serve closed the gap even more at 23-22, and Mabel Culp’s spike had the Lady Rockets down only 24-23, but the Lady Wolves took Game 1 on Alyssa Skamai’s tip-in to win 25-23.
“We had some great rallies and continued to play hard,” Headlee said.
West Shamokin took an early 3-0 lead in Game 2, but Heather Herbert’s ace tied the game at 3-3. The Lady Rockets stayed close and Chelsey Byers’ tap-in gave them a 9-8 early edge, but they were not able to hold the lead as the Lady Wolves came back.
Two Beth Bassinger aces extended the West Shamokin lead to 13-10, its biggest of the game since starting out at 3-0, and Jefferson-Morgan called a timeout.
The Wolves padded their lead to 17-11 and the Lady Rockets responded with a 3-0 run to pull to within 17-14. West Shamokin pulled away though and took a 21-16 lead that forced Jefferson-Morgan to use its last timeout.
The Lady Rockets regrouped and closed the gap to 24-21 on Culp’s spike, but a tip-in winner by Laina Walker gave the Wolves a 25-21 win to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Jefferson-Morgan opened up an early 5-1 lead in Game 3, but it would not last. West Shamokin came storming back to take a 6-5 lead and pulled away to take a 15-11 lead, and Jefferson-Morgan called time.
Baker continued spiking home winners as her shot gave the Lady Wolves a 17-11 lead. They extended their lead to 20-11 before two Culp winners closed the gap to 21-14.
It was too big of a hole for the Lady Rockets to climb out of though, and the Wolves closed out the match on a Genna DeVivo shot for a 25-15 score in Game 3.
“I thought we lost a little focus later in the match,” Headlee said.
West Shamokin head coach Dan Spencer usually enjoys a balanced attack, but he thought Paige Baker took over the match last night.
“The key to our win tonight is two words – Paige Baker,” Spencer said. “On most nights, we spread it around, but Paige (Baker) was on tonight so we kept feeding her.”
Culp led the Lady Rockets with eight kills. Marissa Cameron finished with 28 digs and Morgan Olson had 18 assists.