Lady Pirates earn berth to District Tourney

POMEROY––The Lady Pirates crammed half of their Southeast 1B league season into a 50-hour segment of last week, and when the dust cleared, they held a third-place berth to the District Tournament, and faced Liberty Christian last Tuesday night on the court in Richland. (Game info to appear next week.)

Pomeroy achieved a tournament berth by beating Colton on Monday, November 1, in three games, then getting the higher seed thanks to a favorable number draw over Garfield-Palouse. The Lady Bucs got the third-place berth and G-P fourth, where they faced No. 1 Sunnyside Christian from the Grape Division.

"Many teams are having to play Covid-related make-up games, but I don't believe anyone in the history of the state has been asked to do what our girls had to do," said Lady Pirate Head Coach Adam Van Vogt. "Our girls found a way to be successful and clinch a playoff berth despite being required to play 50% of their league schedule in less than 50 hours with only two practices since coming back from a two-week absence."

The final match with Colton was squeezed in Monday, Nov. 1. Results will be printed next week.

Five matches were played between October 26-28, said Van Vogt, all within 50 hours.

"It was a grueling experience for our girls that completed the fourth and fifth matches a week to the day after the team came off of quarantine," Van Vogt said. "However, counting the match we played the Saturday before, we were able to go 3-3 against our league during this stretch."

SJEL downed the Lady Pirates in a double header Thursday, Oct. 28, by set scores of 15-25, 21-25, 14-25 in the first match and 3-25, 12-25, 12-25 in the second.

"I think the rigors of a long week finally caught up to us both mentally and physically," he said. "It wasn't the ending to the week that we wanted, but overall, the week was a success."

Keely Maves and Elizabeth Ruchert were powerful with nine kills apiece. Jillian Herres made 20 assists and 11 digs, and Maves counted nine digs. Ruchert added two blocks to her net performance.

Tekoa-Rosalia visited Oct. 27 and the Lady Bucs won in three sets, 25-12, 25-10, 25-6. High-percentage serving helped the effort, Chase Caruso 100% (12/12) with an ace and four digs, and both Katie Boyer and Jillian Herres in the high nineties at the service line. Herres was 26/27-96% and seven aces, and Boyer was 15/16-84% with six aces.

Ruchert notched seven kills and Clara Jentz made three blocks.

"We played the most mistake-free volleyball that I've seen us play this season," Van Vogt said. "We made them earn every point they got. I was very happy with our focus and consistency."

"We had a chance to sweep Gar-Pal on Tuesday and had leads late in games four and five in the first match, but couldn't close those games out," Van Vogt said. "I believe fatigue was a factor as we were able to consistently start strong and consistently faded late but we rallied for a victory in match two to split on the night."

Gar-Pal won the first match 25-15, 19-25, 25-22, 24-26, 15-17, eking out the fifth set. After a break, the Lady Pirates rallied for a four-set win in the double-header, 25-17, 25-18, 22-25, 26-24.

Maves had some big numbers from the matches: 47 kills and 39 digs. Ruchert hammered 29 kills, and Herres counted 89 assists. Caruso made 53 digs.