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Bloomfield hitters carry Lady Cards to victory over Eastern
BLOOMFIELD -- The Cardinal proved mightier than the Thunderbird Tuesday night as Bloomfield defeated Eastern in a Southwest Indiana Athletic Conference showdown
Bloomfield (9-10, 5-1) prevailed in four sets, 25-15, 21-25, 25-11, 25-17, over Eastern (5-15, 2-2). Bloomfield coach Laura Rose said the Lady Cardinal hitters enjoyed a good evening against their conference rivals.
“We had some good serving tonight,” Rose said. “Overall, I’m very pleased.”
Eastern coach Whitney Russell said the Lady Thunderbirds need more consistency. She said Eastern gave up too many big runs, including a 14-2 stretch that decided the third set for Bloomfield. She added that too many Bloomfield points came on Eastern’s “silly mistakes.”
Russell said: “We looked like a roller coaster. We looked like we’re way up or we’re way down.”
Bloomfield’s fans were loud and raucous during the match, Russell noted. She said the Lady T-Birds came out “shaky and nervous,” but the clamor was good because it gave them a taste of what the sectional environment will be like.
The Lady Cardinals cruised during the first game. Eastern errors helped the Lady Cards jump out to a 9-3 lead. Two kills by Malea Toon and a tip by Becky Riggs pushed the lead to 13-4. They stayed comfortably on top until Eastern made a 7-2 run with two service points by Hallie Benefiel and three by Cydney Burris to cut the lead to 18-13. Elizabeth Combs hammered a kill for sideout, and the Lady Cards closed the game with a 6-2 run. Malea Ramsey tipped for a point, Kylee Shelton drilled an ace, and Toon scored the last two points, slapping a kill and blocking Rachael Sparks‘ spike attempt.
After three early ties in the second set, the last coming at 5-5, it was Eastern’s turn to jump out to a big lead.
Timber Falin blocked Shelton’s spike attempt, and the hosts hurt themselves with six point-scoring errors as Eastern went on top 15-7. The Lady Cards made a furious rally as Combs hammered three kills for points and served three points to boost Bloomfield into a 19-all tie. Toon blocked Falin’s spike attempt for one point during the rally, but Falin smashed a kill for a point and Cydney Burris tipped for another point. However, four Bloomfield errors helped Eastern close the game with a 6-2 run, Falin tipping for the final point.
Rose said Eastern exploited a weak rotation in the second set. She said the rotation used limited Combs’ time on the front row.
“Obviously, our biggest hitters are Malea and Elizabeth,” Rose said. “We had a weak rotation and they just got on a run and scored a lot of points. It just got us down.”
She said she corrected the rotation in the third set which probably decided the match.
“We had too many rotations where we didn’t have Elizabeth in the front row,” Rose said, “so we moved her around. We didn’t utilize our hitters.
The third set started out as anybody’s game. Jordan Shaw of Eastern blocked and bumped for two points; Combs smacked two kills; Falin blocked Toon and hammered a kill, but Toon had a kill of her own; Eastern’s Cloey Burris joined the fun with a kill and a tip for points; Bloomfield’s Brooklyn Bucher and Shaw both served aces; and game was tied at 8-8.
However, Toon tipped to launch a 14-2 run. She planted an ace and hammered two kills during the surge, but she also got a lot of help from her friends. Ramsey served eight points, Combs pounded a kill and blocked Falin’s spike attempt, and Shelton smashed a kill and batted down an overpassed ball for back-to-back points. Falin ended the onslaught with a kill, but Bucher and Toon smacked kills to power Bloomfield to victory.
“We got more aggressive,” Rose said. “We have a lot of aggressive servers. It’s nice to have them.”
The Lady Thunderbirds refused to say die. Falin smashed a kill and Cloey Burris-served four points, one an ace and one coming on a Falin tip, to stake Eastern to a 5-0 lead. After the teams swapped points, Combs served six points for an 8-6 lead. Although Toon slapped a point-scoring kill, four of the points came on serve receive errors. Four different Lady Cardinals helped Bucher serve six points for a 16-8 Bloomfield lead. Toon pounded three kills, Riggs and Hayley England each had one, and Ramsey tipped for another point. The Lady Thunderbirds countered with a 9-3 run to cut the deficit to two, 19-17. Sparks fueled the run. She thumped a kill and blocked Toon, Riggs, and Ramsey for points.
After a sideout, Shelton served out the game. Toon proved to be Eastern’s nemesis during the 6-0 run as she swatted down two overpassed balls and scored the winning point with a well-placed tip.
“Malea Toon carried us,” Rose said. “When she’s on the front row ... we need to take advantage of that more.”
Despite the loss, Russell saw some positives for Eastern. She said Falin, 14 kills and 11 digs, played well. “She was being aggressive. After she made a mistake, she came back strong.”
Sam Fulford, five digs and two assists, improved her defense and covered more tips, a problem for Eastern in Monday’s loss to Wood Memorial, Russell said. “She’s really improved.”
Shaw smacked six kills and tallied 12 digs in one of her best games to date.
Bloomfield defeated Eastern 25-13, 24-25, 15-5 in the junior varsity match.
“They played really good in the third set,” Rose said. “That momentum carried over into our varsity match.”
Both teams swing into action at 6:00 p.m. Monday night. Eastern travels to Bedfore and Bloomfield ventures to South Knox.
EASTERN STATS
Timber Falin: 14 kills, 11 digs, 2 blocks.
Cydney Burris: 15 digs, 1 block-assist, 1 ace, 20 assists.
Jordan Shaw: 6 kills, 12 digs, 1 block, 1 ace.
Rachael Sparks: 5 kills, 3 digs, 2 blocks, 1 block-assist.
Hallie Benefiel: 14 digs.
Cloey Burris: 2 kills, 9 digs, 2 aces.
Cheyanne Sims: 7 digs.
Sam Fulford: 5 digs, 1 block, 1 block-assist, 2 assists.