St. Bede makes quick work
PERU — When the St. Bede volleyball team stepped to the service line in Monday’s match with LaMoille/Ohio, the Bruins had an ace up their sleeve — make that 11 aces.
Over one-fifth of St. Bede’s 50 points came from aces and the Bruins’ service attack frustrated LaMoille/Ohio all match long as St. Bede made quick work of the Lady Lions at the Academy, winning 25-13, 25-10 in only 30 minutes.
“I was real happy they were able to place the ball and LaMoille struggled with their passing, so it made it a little easier to pick out, ‘Go there. Go there,’” St. Bede coach Dawn Williams said. “We practice hitting the spots, but it doesn’t always work.”
It was a night of things that worked for St. Bede (5-7), who made such quick work of L/O that — according to its stats — only had one assist the entire night. The Bruins’ hitters also had unusually low numbers because of the quick match and tweaking of lineups.
“We actually ran two lineups tonight,” Williams said. “One game ran one lineup that we’re working on. The other game ran a different lineup, a different look. We’re trying to work on two totally different lineups so that when we get against the Ottawa Marquettes and come down to the end of the season and have to be ready for regionals we can kind of go either way.”
When it wasn’t finding opening space off serves, St. Bede’s serves were frustrating the Lady Lions (3-14), which had 13 unforced errors in game 1 and 15 unforced errors in game 2.
“Overall, we didn’t play like we did against Annawan last week and we had way too many errors,” said L/O coach Denise Billhorn, whose team only returns one player from last season. “We had too many hitting errors, way too many hitting errors, too many service errors and just way too many ‘other’ errors.”
L/O was the team that set the tone early, using two St. Bede miscues and a Laura Stouffer ace to build a 3-0 advantage. Even after St. Bede regrouped, L/O battled and hung with a bigger St. Bede squad to push the game to 7-all.
But St. Bede took over from there thanks to LaMoille native, Taylor Miller. The Bruin sophomore, who had St. Bede’s only assist, was on the service line as the Bruins rallied for six straight points — including two Miller aces — to take a 13-7 lead.
“When Taylor is serving we tend to have our biggest front line in the front, so it’s not only her serves, but it’s also our lineup,” Williams said. “Our best passers are in the back row at that time. Our best hitters are in the front row. It’s our strongest combination.”
St. Bede cruised from there as it outscored L/O 12-6 to close out the first set.
In the second set L/O once again sprinted to the quick lead, but St. Bede tied the match at 3- before scoring three straight points. Then, after losing possession for a point, the Bruins really went to work.
On the serve of senior Jillian Stariha, St. Bede scored 12 straight points and turned a 6-4 lead into an 18-4 advantage. An Erika Walzer kill ended the Bruins’ run, but the damage was already done.
“We had pretty strong net play and that’s one of the things I’m pleased with our girls about,” Williams said. “The blockers are in your face, and whether they get a touch on the ball or not they’re still going scare you. They’re going to be there.”
The Lady Lions responded with four straight points to cut the deficit to 18-8, but the Bruins had little trouble closing out the set, scoring seven of the game’s final nine points for the win.
“We just need to find the floor better,” Billhorn said. “We need to think of our shots better and we don’t always have to get up and try and muscle the ball as hard as we can at the net. Use the brain and the skills you’ve been taught, think and play some smart volleyball.”
• St. Bede swept the night taking the sophomore prelim 25-16, 25-16.
