TIOGA - Burke County can spread the wealth.
The Titans had six players with at least one kill and four different players with at least one ace as Burke County swept Watford City 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-18) in the first round of the Region 8 tournament Monday at the Tioga High School gym.
"I think the girls are really close and they know their roles," Titans co-head coach Marki Ellis said. "They know each other can take care of it and aren't worried if they have to leave it in somebody else's hands."
The diversified Titans got out to fast starts in each game mainly behind a combination of solid serving and poor serve receiving by Watford City. The formula proved true in all three games.
"I think we were just going for accuracy," Ellis said.
BC's Molly Aufforth got the Titans rolling in game 1 with an ace to take a 15-8 lead. Brittney Peterson hit two of her match-high 12 kills during a 4-1 run to get to game point. After a couple of Wolves points, Peterson ended the game with a tip kill.
"It was very crucial to get off to good starts. Our girls like to dig holes, but we didn't do that (Monday)," Ellis said. "We played very well."
Peterson was solid in game 2, but she was joined by Aufforth and Morgan Pandolfo at the net in game 2 as the Titans spread the ball around to multiple players throughout the match. All three had intricate roles as the Titans pushed a 7-5 lead to 18-14 - the last two of the run coming in the from of an Aufforth block and a Peterson kill.
"We really leave it up to the setters," said Ellis, referring to Chelsey Johnson who had 16 assists and Kalene Jepsen who finished with five. "It comes from the passes too. They make good decisions and we don't try to do too much with it."
Every time the Wolves could get something going, BC had an answer. The Titans jumped out to a 9-2 lead in game 3. WC looked like it had things figured out, getting back to just a 16-15 deficit, but Aufforth dropped two big blocks and momentum was back on the Titans' side.
"They needed to get it done right away," Ellis said of the sweep. "We didn't want to give (WC) anything because if we did, they would take it and roll with it."
The Wolves got five kills, five aces and 10 digs from McKayla Haugeberg. Pederson finished with three kills, three aces, five digs and two blocks for WC
Pandolfo had eight kills and 12 assists to help the BC cause. Aufforth finished with at least one mark in every statistic, garnering eight digs, five blocks, three kills, two assists and an ace for the Titans.
BC moves on to face Ray in the second semifinal tonight beginning 25 minutes after the conclusion of the first semifinal.
Ray 3, Parshall 0
It was feast or famine for both teams serving.
Ray, however, feasted quite a bit more.
The Jays fired 18 aces as a team to power past Parshall 3-0 (25-11, 25-17, 25-5) in a first round match.
"We didn't let too many regular balls hit the court, but serve receive wasn't great," Ray head coach Michelle Dolan said "Overall, this will build some confidence heading into (today)."
Dolan used the lopsided affair to get multiple players into the match. She was rewarded with contributions from a variety of people. Samantha Heier finished with eight kills, four digs and two blocks; Olivia Corcoran tallied eight kills, six digs and four aces; Haley Hodenfield finished with 10 digs and three assists; Kayla Thompson fired four aces and had three digs, while LeAndra Reinholdt finished with a team-high seven assists, three digs and two aces.
"Hopefully it lets them take care of some of their nerves," Dolan said "We missed a lot of serves early on. Hopefully now we can get into a groove."
Parshall used aces of its own to get close in game 2, but was overmatched early in games 1 and 3. No statistics were made available by the Braves.
Ray moves on to face Burke County in tonight's second semifinal.
Stanley 3, Tioga 0
Defending region champion Stanley wasted little time to get leads in each of the three games in a first round sweep (25-18, 25-19, 25-20) of Tioga.
That was somewhat of a blessing and a curse for the Blue Jays.
"We came out with a little more intensity than last week, but we still let up once we get a lead," said Blue Jays head coach Jessica Niemitalo said. "We let them keep some hope instead of closing them out. But we got the win and we will need to get it going (tonight)."
Stanley never let Tioga all the way back in, however, as the Blue Jays had superior balance. Stanley had five players with at least five kills led by Rachel Mehus' match-leading 10 kills. Shaunessy Dauwalder finished with eight, Bailey Hornberger 6, Jasmin Pappa and Brooke Meyer added 5 apiece for the Blue Jays.
"They all can hit," Niemitalo said. "Sometimes in the past we have had one big hitter and everyone knows that we are going to go to her. But now we don't have that. If someone is having an off night, we can go to someone else. I'm not worried about someone getting it over."
Tioga was led by Jordan Larson's seven kills, while Andriana Puchany finished with six kills and a team-high 16 digs.
Stanley's ReeAnn Mehus finished with 24 assists and seven digs, while Rachel Mehus had three aces and seven digs.
The Blue Jays play Divide County today in the first semifinal beginning at 6 p.m.
Divide County 3,
Trinity Christian 0
Divide County's middle hitting tandem Ellie Gillund and Mariah Jacobs were nearly unstoppable as the Maroons used big runs through the middle of each game to dispatch Trinity Christian 3-0 (25-18, 25-19, 25-13) in the first round.
"They are both very good," DC head coach Kami Wehrman said. "I can't tell you which one we would rather have. They give us some balance when one is in the back, we can rotate the other one up front."
Jacobs recorded match-highs in kills (13) and blocks (6) and Gillund added 10 kills and five blocks to power DC.
"We were a little slow going today," Wehrman said. "Hopefully we can bounce back (in the semifinals). We had one of our starters sick so we had a different lineup and I don't know if that was it or not."
The Crusaders stayed in the first two games until 10-15 points, but late runs did them in. Alice Trottier finished with five kills to pace TC. Ciara Walker and Katie Harger had four kills each, while Megan Herr led the team with 14 assists.
DC's Morgan Renner paced both the offense with 17 assists and the defense with seven digs. Kayla Casteel added three aces and four digs for the Maroons, who move on to play Stanley in the semifinals.
