Published: November 03, 2009 12:32 am      

Ramblers, Panthers to meet in semifinal

WINDBER — It didn’t take long for the first team in the District 5 girls volleyball playoffs to punch its ticket to the semifinals. The second one? Well, that was a different story.

Second-seeded Windber swept Everett 25-10, 25-12, 25-6.

“Everett played very well (Monday night),” Windber coach Don Byer said. “I just think that we had more offensive weapons than they did.”

Alyssa Ott had 23 service points, including six aces, and seven kills. Corrine Gahagen added 13 kills, Lea Brutz had a match-high 31 assists and Ashley Pipon tacked on 19 service points of her own, five of which were aces.

After the Ramblers’ impressive victory, most of the team stayed around to see who their opponent would be in tonight’s semifinal game as Shade took on Northern Bedford in the second half of the twinbill.

The first set was a sign of things to come between the dueling Panthers. The action was back-and-forth early on until Shade went on a five-point run led by Shayna Kalanish and Casey Roberts. However, that five point burst only put them up by two at 12-10. But Northern Bedford proved to be too strong and rallied to take a 20-18 lead and eventual 25-22 win.

Shade though wasn’t deterred by the Northern Bedford rally and came out firing in the second set. Roberts, who had a team-high 14 kills, led the way once again as Shade led from beginning to end in a 25-13 romp.

Shade seemed to have taken control of the match by jumping out early once again on Northern Bedford but couldn’t hold the lead. After being down by five early, Northern Bedford rallied to tie the game at 17 and eventually took a 2-1 lead with a 26-24 victory.

“We’ve had trouble maintaining momentum all season,” Shade coach Mindy Leonard said. “Once we lost the momentum, we got away from our game plan, and you just can’t win like that.”

Northern Bedford continued to dominate early in the fourth game but seemed to be stuck at match point for an eternity.

Shade, down by 11 at one point rallied to within four but couldn’t get any closer in the 25-20 loss.

“We gave away a lot of points (Monday night),” Northern Bedford coach Mel Bowser said. “We didn’t quit though, and going into (tonight) against Windber, we’ve got to bring the best game that we have.”