Taking the fifth

Hall senior captain Katelyn Hanson takes a tumble as Lady Devil teammates Lindsay Wallaert, Carly Prokup, Erin Polte and Kendall Rush celebrate their stunning regional semifinal victory over Mendota Thursday in Manlius. Hall would later whoop it up again with a title victory over host Bureau Valley. (BCR photo/Kevin Hieronymus)

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MANLIUS — Demi Salazar looked tired amidst the celebration of his Hall Lady Devils regional championship celebration at Bureau Valley High School. The Lady Devils survived a long grueling night of volleyball, upsetting heavily favored Mendota in the semifinals and then turning around to defeat Bureau Valley on its homecourt in front of the Storm’s boisterous student body.

When asked who was more tired, Salazar said, “I think I am. They have a lot of energy. I’m tired.”

And happy. The Lady Devils captured their fifth straight regional championship to earn a berth into the Rockridge Sectional to play Chillicothe IVC in Thursday’s semifinals.

“Four years I’ve been a part of this, and it is amazing. We all played our hearts out,” Hall senior co-captain Katelyn Hanson said. “All the teams that we played tonight were here to beat us. We wanted this more than anything, and I can’t wait until we get to sectionals, and I hope we can go further than this.”

BV coach Vicki Litherland felt her girls, who got a 20-minute break following their semifinal win over Sherrard, looked tired and played tired.

“You can’t take anything away from (Hall). They just came after us,” she said. “We couldn’t get over the hump. We couldn’t get our offense going. We were just a step slow. We looked like we do at the end of a 2 1/2 hour practice, and we condition.”

Storm athletic director Mike Patterson introduced the teams like a prize fight, with Bureau Valley representing western Bureau County and Hall coming from eastern Bureau County. And the fight was on early.

The Storm was able to use a little of their patented “Shake ‘n Bake,” using two aces by little Alyssa Pursley and a ball off a Hall block to gain a 6-3 lead. A Hall service error, a hit by Pursley, and a hitting error kept the Storm on top 10-6.

Polte used a nice push for the Hall sideout, and Rounds scored twice, using an ace to make it 10-9.

BV got the sideout, but Hall scored a straight four points by Lindsay Wallaert, after its own sideout, to take a 14-11 lead. After another BV sideout, Erin Polte strung six points together to take a commanding 21-12 lead, backed by three Rush kills.

A Hillary Monier kill momentarily stalled Hall as the Storm got within 23-14. Rush was able to tip toe the imaginary line underneath the net on a hit for point No. 24, and Hall would finish off the game 25-14.

As tired as both teams may have been, they were able to reach down for a little extra in game 2. The county rivals exchanged service errors for a 6-6 tie early. Rush gained a 9-9 tie with a big hit for Hall and the Storm tied it again at 10 when Hillary Monier’s hit went out for BV.

Rush and Victor scored back-to-back hits for Hall, but  Tess Nelson answered for the Storm and a 13-12 lead. Victor kept her hot hand with two more kills as Hall gained a 16-14 edge.

The Storm tied the game one more time at 16 but sailed a serve long, and Rush and Hall moved in for the kill. Rush knocked down two straight kills to make it 20-16. A hitting error, and double hit, and another no return by BV pushed Hall’s lead to 23-16.

Rush finished with 13 kills against the Storm, 25 for the night, and Litherland said the Storm weren’t able to find anything to slow her down.

“We watched Kendall against Mendota, and was like, ‘Whoa.’ I knew we had to be able to stop her,” she said.

Litherland also said Polte posed a lot of problems for the Storm.

“Little Erin Polte, she does a lot of good stuff for them. We tried changing the angles to try to stop her and had a hard time,” she said.

BV got back within 24-20, but would not score again.

Walleart finished with 11 points and Polte served for nine to go with 18 assists. Victor and Rounds backed Rush with three kills each.

Pursley and Monier each had three kills for Bureau Valley.

Hall takes a 20-18 record to the Rockridge Sectionalk, looking to punch a ticket home for its own supersectional.

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