Lady Bees Volleyball

PLAY STOW AGAIN IN REGIONAL SEMI-FINAL

By Dom DiPasqua / Staff Writer

Sunday afternoon, November 1, 2009

SOLON - After waltzing through the Division I sectional/district tournament here the Lady Bees will set their sites on Wednesday nights’ Divsion I Regional semi-final volleyball tussle with Stow-Monroe Falls.

First serve at Hudson High School will either be at 7:30PM or 30-minutes after the conclusion of the first match of the evening between Painesville Riverside and Wadsworth, who are pitted against each other in the opposite bracket semi-final.

With a 25-21, 25-15, 25-13 dismantling of former nemesis Solon in yesterday afternoons district championship match the Lady Bees proved thet they have truly arrived as a volleyball force, not only in Northeast Ohio, but around the Buckeye State as well.

Brecksville-Broadview Heights is now 22-3 overall. The Bees have a, 60-11, game record this fall. They have won 13 matches in a row and have a dozen sweeps to their collection, including a whitewashing of all three opponents (Garfield Heights, Warren Howland and the host Lady Comets) at Solon.

Solon, who made an improbable run of their own to the district championship tilt, bows out with an overall record of 4-21. They had to get past third-seeded Hudson and second seeded Maple Heights in order to face the top-seeded Bees. But by 3:15 yesterday afternoon their magic carpet ride was over.

It was the second straight year that Brecksville had defeated Solon on their own court to take home a district championship trophy. That sounds almost too good to be true for  Lady Bee Nation.  Solon had a seven-year hex on the Bees in the district title match prior to last year.

Brecksville finished the regular season ranked eighth in the Ohio Volleyball Coaches Association regular season-ending poll. Amherst Steele, the Bees arch rival in the Southwestern Conference whom they defetaed twice in regular season play, finished seventh.

Should Brecksville and Amherst see each other again this autumn it won’t be until the state championship match on Saturday, November 14.  But there is a lot of volleyball to be played between now and then.

Awaiting them Wednesday night will be the Lady Bulldogs of Stow-Munroe Falls High School. The Bees defeated Stow a year ago in the regional semi-final round at Hudson. This years Lady Bulldog club enters Wednesday’s match with an overall record of 13-11. Stow plays in the three-tier Northeast Ohio Conference, which includes North Royalton and Strongsville.

GAME ONE: 25-21, Bees

Four hitting errors and a service error enabled the Lady Comets to streak to an early, 7-1, lead over Brecksville -Broadview Heights.

Following a quick time out by Bees head coach Rob Cline to assess the matter, Brecksville climbed back into the fray.

A, 6-,1 Bees run led by a block by senior setter Jacque “Jaws” Reszler began the comeback. Junior left side hitter Olivia “The Big O” Chrzanowski banged home a slam and junior Beckie “The Nigerian Nightmare” Famurewa added a kill and the next thing you knew it Reszlers ace had tied the game at eight-all.

Chrzanowski’s kill gave the Bees their first lead of the game at 15-14. Brecksville began to pull away when junior Ashley King hammered one home from Reszler for a 20-17 lead.

Senior ouitside hitter Lindsey “Remmy” Remington, a 6-0 team captain, drilled a pair kills with perfect sets from Reszler includingthe game winner.

” I don’t really know what happened, but we got off to a slow start. We weren’t nervous at all.” King said. “Once we got it going it was just like practice, it became automatic.”

The Bees 7-1 deficit was the largest hole that they had dug themselves out of to win a game all season.

Second Game: 25-15, Bees.

Solon hung around early in the second game until sophomore sensation Abbey “Gail The Whale” Brinkman landed a kill from Reszler and a 13-10 Brecksville lead.

The Bees kept pounding away.  Remington landed an ace, Brinkman killed and then Reszler followed. Solon committed two hitting errors before back-to-back blocks by Brinkman and Remington gave the red-clads a 21-12 lead.

Chrzanowski and Remington each went high for a kill and King tallied from Brinkman for game point and a 25-15 Brecksville win.

“We got off to a slow start just to keep the fans interested.” Joked Remington when it was all over. “But we beat them and that’s all that matters.”

“Our game plan was to hit zones one, five and three and try to not make any errors.” Said Remington, who had nine kills on the day.  “We went line and cross-court. We just wanted to keep the ball in play.”

Game Three: Bees win 25-13

Famurewa, who came up with six blocks on the day,  killed to give the Bees a 10-5 lead that they would never look back on. A Remmy floor-rattler gave Brecksville a 15-9 lead.

King killed and then blocked for a 22-13 lead. The Comets booted a few into the twines and a huge spike from Remington on passes from Reszler and Chrzanowski brought the curtain down on the Comets campaign.

“Against Stow we are going to have to start out a lot stronger than we did today. We were a little shakey at first.” Chrzanowski, who had 15 kills, said. “I like to get out to a nice comfortable, say 5-0, lead. But we didn’t overlook Solon at all today. We prepared for them as hard as we do for anyone.”

“Ashley King had eight kills and seven blocks. Today was the best game that she ever played.” Said Cline. “Remmy had 12 digs and ‘The Big O’ had 11. It’s always our outsides who come up big there. Jacqe Reszler had 32 assists.”

“With Solon we thought that we’d try to keep the ball in play and just outlast them.” Said Cline. “We didn’t have to take the chances that we took today. We gave them a lot of points.”

“Danny Irving (assistant coach) does a great job of finding weaknesses in the other teams defense.” Cline said. “Our passing in games two and three was better and the scores indicated that.”

“Now that we have established ourselves as a state power things are a little different. Our kids now have a bulls-eye on their back. I have to believe that we’ll be the favorite heading into the regional this year, which was totally different than last year.” Said Cline. “I attribute our wins to our conference. Avon Lake is a very good team, but they might as well start off the conference with six losses already. That is a big boost for us playing in the Southwestern Conference. Other teams don’t and we do and that has helped us compete every night.”

“Danny Irving is our chief scout. That’s what he does. I’m sure on Monday that I’ll get a 8-page scouting report on Stow.” Answered Cline when asked about the Bees next opponent on the tourney trail. “We’ll devour what he supplies and take  the three days we have to get a game plan ready for Stow.”

GOLDEN IS GATES:

BBHHS Principal Randy Gates was on hand Saturday to cheer the Lady Bees on. Gates had the honor of presenting Brecksville players their district championship medallions following Saturday’s big win.

DAILY MORNING MONOLITH:

It was good for Brecksville – Broadview Heights to finally get some well-deserved recognition from the markets only newspaper. Bob Fortuna, a long-time friend and colleague, was on hand yesterday to chronicle the Bees district championship victory. To give you an idea of how long Fortuna has been covering high school sports he covered yours truly while a baseball player at Maple Heights High School in 1977 for the former Southeast Sun. Read the PD story by CLICKING HERE.

TRICK OR TREAT?:

Lady Bee official scorer, freshman Pamela Seneff, said that she would dress as a Gothic Bride to attend a Halloween Party last night in Garfield Heights. Freshman coach Amy Mauceri disclaimed that she would dress-up as the Progressive Car Insurance Lady from the television commercials.

LADY BEE NATION SET A BUZZ!:

It had to be demoralizing enough for host Solon to be out-numbered in the fan department, about 5-1. But when four BBHHS students entered the Comets gym wearing Bee outfits the place went nuts! Hats off to senior Sarah Kirk and her three comrades for sporting the yellow and black horizontally striped get-ups. They were the belle’s of the ball. “We are going to wear these outfits to all the rest of the Lady Bees tournament games.” Kirk said between games one and two yesterday while scrapping for a Tootsie Pop.

YESTERDAYS STARTERS :

BEES – Smith (L), Brinkman, Reszler, Chrzanowski, Remington, King and Green.

SOLON – Lobaza, Woo, George, Kruse, Joseph, Coleman (L), Tekavec.

QUOTEBOOK:

“Solon wasn’t a problem for us. We saw them twice in scrimmages and took them in the tournament. We weren’t scared at all.” – Ashley King.

See You at The Bee Hive!

To contact: Ddipa67834@aol.com.

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