Lady Rockets swept from playoffs
BRIDGEVILLE — After missing the playoffs a year ago, Jefferson-Morgan was back in the postseason after finishing second in Section 5-A.
Despite the stellar regular season, their playoff stay was short-lived as the Lady Rockets suffered a 3-0 sweep by Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Thursday night at Chartiers Valley High School.
“We made some mistakes tonight, but I give a lot of credit to Sacred Heart,” J-M coach Lisa Olson said. “They played an outstanding game and were flawless in a lot of areas. They set the outsides and we just couldn’t block them. They did a good job of reading the court and placing the ball in some good areas.”
The Lady Rockets (13-5) dropped the first round match-up, 25-18, 25-16 and 25-5.
OLSH had too much size, experience and were able to spread out the floor more in the win. The Lady Chargers (12-1) will now play Shenango Tuesday.
Notable scorers for J-M were Camryn Dugan (10 assists, 7 service points), Morgan Simkovic (7 service points, 4 kills), Jamie Lawrence (17 digs) and Anna Mattish (4 kills).
The Lady Rockets caught fire early on and started the opening set on a 9-4 rally. Simkovic had two kills and three aces in the early run for J-M.
After a timeout by OLSH, the Lady Chargers regained the momentum with a 12-7 spurt that knotted the match-up at 16-16.
OLSH scored four of the next five points and ended the first set on a 5-1 run to capture the 1-0 lead.
“We brought a lot of emotion in that first set,” Olson said. “I think they were pumped to be in the playoffs and were ready to go. They played together and we rotated well in our sets. Unfortunately we couldn’t finish it off and that killed our momentum.”
The Lady Rockets trailed 8-3 in the early stages of the second set, but managed to get back into the set with a rally of their own and tied the set at 8-8 on an ace by Dugan.
OLSH garnered separation from a 10-10 deadlock with six consecutive points and grabbed the second set with a 9-6 spree to go up 2-0.
It was all Lady Chargers in the final set, as the sixth-seed in Class A broke away from a 4-3 lead with 14 straight points. OLSH ended the night by scoring seven of the final eight points for the sweep.
J-M has made the playoffs in 16 of the last 19 years and have gone 7-8 in the first round in that time span. OLSH defeated the Lady Rockets in the opening round in 2005.
Despite the loss of several seniors, the Lady Rockets will look to regroup for 2016.
“We had a very successful season and it hurts to have the season end like this,” Olson said. “I say this all the time, but we have a great group of girls on the team. They bought into our program and were passionate about volleyball. Words can’t describe the impact the seniors have on this team. They kept our team together and I’m going to miss them.”