No. 9 Clovers play No. 7 WeBo tough before falling 3-1

MONROVIA — The No. 7-ranked Cloverdale Clovers and the No. 9-ranked Western Boone Stars squared off in the 2A Sectional 44 championship contest Saturday evening at Monrovia.

The matchup lived up to its billing as great volleyball was played, with the Stars coming out on top to win three sets to one.

The Clovers lost the first two matches 25-23 and 25-22 before rallying to win the third one 25-23.

The Stars managed to hold off the Clovers to win the title 25-19 in the fourth match.

“It was really, really good volleyball. I enjoyed watching it. I wish we could have scored more points,” Cloverdale interim head coach Jim Spencer said.

The two teams battled evenly all night. The largest total lead by any team was seven points at any given time in any of the four matches. Both teams showed their mettle by not allowing their opponent any significant runs.

“They (Western Boone) kept the pressure on us all night. They did a really good job of keeping us from getting runs going and they got a few smaller runs on us,” Spencer said.

In a series that the total score differential was only nine points, unforced errors are critical. The Stars minimized their errors as unofficially, Western Boone only had 23 unforced errors on the night, while the Clovers had 31.

The night didn’t start out on a positive note for the Clovers. WeBo took a 5-0 lead right off the bat, forcing two timeouts by Cloverdale, as the Clovers had two unforced errors and were struggling.

“I was really proud of the way we kept fighting. We allowed ourselves to get behind in three of the four matches, but we fought our way back,” Spencer said.

The Clovers rallied several times during the first match behind numerous Tori Combs kills and Hailey Thomas saves. The Clovers even took a brief 16-15 lead behind a great rally, but couldn’t overcome the steady Stars and lost the match 25-23.

Western Boone again took an early lead in game number two. The Clovers rallied early, but allowed the Stars to push the margin to seven at 17-10 before Cloverdale began to claw its way back. Cloverdale cut the lead to 19-17 behind the play of Kenzie Stoltz, Kassie Wade and Combs at the net and Thomas digging numerous shots.

In the end, Anna Jones of Western Boone was too much at the net with a pair of kills and the solid serving of McKenna Way for the Stars paved the way for their 25-22 win in game two.

Cloverdale picked up a win game three as Hannah Rady and Morgan Goss served well and the Clovers got a boost with some solid net play by Haley Smith. The Clovers took a 15-14 lead late in the match behind three service aces by Rady and managed to hold on for a 25-23 victory to force game three.

“I am really happy with the way we played and competed. They were solid, We could have used a few errors from them to help us out, but we really played well,” Spencer said.

Cloverdale jumped out to an 8-3 lead in game four, but couldn’t hold on as Way had three aces to lead the Stars back to a 9-8 lead. WeBo then extended its lead to slowly throughout the remainder of game four. Again, Way’s serving and Jones net play kept the pressure on Cloverdale. Cloverdale couldn’t maintain the pace and fell just short, 25-19 as the Stars picked up the win and the sectional title.

“These girls overcame a lot of adversity to have a great season. They had to deal with a switch of coaches mid-season and they were a lot of fun to coach,” Spencer said as he had to take over for Sam Jones earlier due to injuries suffered in a car accident.

• Cloverdale 3, South Putnam 0 — The Clovers defeated South Putnam in three games earlier in the day to reach the finals. The Clovers won 25-11, 25-7, and 25-16 to sweep the semi-final match. It didn’t start out easy for the Clovers, though.

The Eagles came out with more energy and took a 9-5 lead before Cloverdale ended the game with a 20-2 run behind Stoltz and Combs at the net making life miserable for the young Eagles.

“A lot of teams don’t play well at eleven in the morning and we are one of them. They (South Putnam) came out with more energy than we did. They kind of woke us up and we did what we had to do,” Spencer said.

The Clovers never trailed in the final two matches of the semi-finals. Cloverdale was able to take advantage of the Eagles’ youth and inexperience to advance. The Eagles played a rotation of four freshmen as they had three upperclassmen miss the game due to either injury or other commitments.

“I thought we competed well for having four freshmen in our rotation. We did a lot of things well, but we just didn’t have enough,” South Putnam head coach Rachelle Custis said.

Cloverdale finished its season 20-10, while the Eagles finished 2-16 in match play.

Monrovia 2A Sectional

Tuesday

Cloverdale 3, North Putnam 0

Thursday

Western Boone 3, Covenant Christian 0

Monrovia 3, Cascade 0

Saturday

Cloverdale 3, South Putnam 0

Western Boone 3, Monrovia 0

Western Boone 3, Cloverdale 1