Byesvillevillagereporter.com - Lady Bobcats sweep Lady Colts to win D-II District title

WEST LAFAYETTE -- Cambridge High's Lady Bobcats rolled past county rival Meadowbrook 25-21, 25-20, 25-6 to claim the Division II District Volleyball Championship at Ridgewood High School.

"We're happy to be district champs," veteran Cambridge coach Rod Johnson said. "It's the first district title for Cambridge in volleyball since the 1990s. I just feel so wonderful for my five seniors. They really deserve this. They, along with the entire team, have worked so hard."

Meadowbrook knew coming in it would need to be clicking on all cylinders to pull off the upset over the favored Lady Bobcats and unfortunately for the Lady Colts, that was not the case.

"Cambridge came in really prepared today," noted first-year Meadowbrook coach Kelly Singleton. "We had a little meltdown today. Our hitting was off and we didn't serve well, but I'd have to give most of the credit for that to Cambridge."

In game one, the squads battled evenly in the early going before the Lady Bobcats started to pull away. With the game deadlocked at 4-4, Cambridge junior Candice Bumgardner rattled off six straight points to grab a 10-4 lead, prompting a timeout call by Singleton.

Singleton's 'TO' effectively broke the Lady Bobcats' momentum and began a brief run by her troops. Katherine Jirles strung together a run of four points to narrow the Meadowbrook margin to 12-8.

Cambridge quickly regained control of the action, pushing its lead to 20-14 with Alysa Rice chalking up three consecutive points from the service line.

With Cambridge holding game-point at 24-19, the Lady Colts were able to keep play going and get within 24-21 on a Jirles kill, and a service point from Candace Neff. A missed serve into the net by Meadowbrook produced the final 25-21 margin.

"I didn't feel we played terribly well in that first game," Johnson said. "We made some bad decisions, some knothead plays that we usually don't make, but we did enough to get the win."

Cambridge started quickly in game two, building as much as a 22-14 lead thanks to three straight points from senior Maggie Starr.

Senior Stef Beskid attempted to get the Lady Colts back into the mix with five straight points, aided by a pair of kills by Jirles in the stretch, to get closer at 23-19.

Cambridge regrouped and closed out the 25-20 game two victory with a kill by senior Katie Davis.

"We started to get into our comfort zone in game two," Johnson added. "We played much better, and were able to keep them at arm's length with a four-five point lead."

Game three was all Lady Bobcats as senior Rebecca Cline set the tone with six straight points to open play, including a pair of aces for the quick 6-0 lead.

Meadowbrook was unable to get back into the game, as the Lady Bobcats rolled to the district title with the 25-6 win.

"Katie Davis and Brittany Berger gave us some strong play at the net today," Johnson said. "You are not going to stop a talented player like Katherine Jirles, but we blocked her just enough to keep her from getting on a roll."

Jirles led Meadowbrook (18-9) with 10 kills and eight digs while Karli Tellep added eight kills and Neff finished with five kills and seven digs. Beskid tallied five points with 17 digs and Breann Voytko chipped in with three points and 25 assists.

"I'm proud of my girls," Singleton said. "We had a good year and we only lose three seniors for next year. We have a lot of experience returning, our junior class has made it to the district three years in a row. That's a good core to build on."

Starr led Cambridge (22-3) with 13 points and nine digs while Rice finished with nine points and 15 assists. Miller added nine points with 10 assists while Bumgardner finished with 10 digs and six points. Davis tallied eight kills while Berger had seven kills and 13 blocks and Cline added seven kills.

"We served well today," Johnson said. "We only missed two serves all day. That's always key at this time of year. I hope that we continue to get the job done from the service line next Thursday."