Area Sports
All-Star VB: Fye, Hicks & White
/ 0
- Details
- Published on 18 June 2012
- Written by B.J. Fictum
- Hits: 975
BEATRICE – The West All-Stars were expecting a fight to the finish and that’s exactly what they got as a determined East team beat the West 25-20, 11-25, 25-21, 27-25 to win the 2012 Southeast Nebraska All-Star Volleyball Classic in Beatrice Friday night.
Three of the 12 West players were local standouts during their senior years, including Maci Hicks of Tri County, Claire White from Exeter-Milligan and Crete’s Breanna Fye.
“We knew there would be groups of really talented girls on both sides,” West head coach Michele Evans said. “The toughest part of our job as coaches was giving them all the playing time they deserved because they are tremendous athletes all the way around. This was a fun group of girls to work with; we had a really good time.”
Evans captained the West, assisted by Tri County head mentor Brett Scheiding.
“The East played defense more solidly than we did,” Scheiding said afterward. “I also believe we had many offensive weapons, but unfortunately we were out of system enough that we didn’t get to display that on a consistent basis. They did a good job of frustrating us, but their solid defense was our weakness tonight.”
Neither team gained a large advantage in the first set, but the East led 5-0 early. Malone forced a sideout and pulled the West within two, 7-5, but the East responded with two kills and an ace block to regain the momentum.
Fye and Kelsey Biltoft (Lawrence-Nelson) helped the West cut the margin in half and a Fye ace block put them within 14-11.
With Claire White at the service line, the West fired off two kills to trail 18-17. Kinsey Tietjen (Thayer Central) forced a sideout then canned an ace serve to keep the gap at one, but 6-foot-2 Kayla Hineline from Nebraska City Lourdes gave the East the 25-21 win.
Evans and Scheiding felt their team was able to adjust to the East’s height (6-foot-2 plus two 6-footers) at the right times.
“With the girls having not played together except for our two practices allowed more than the normal number of all-star-game unforced errors to occur,” Evans added. “They did a good job once they got going even though the first set was a little rough and we knew it would be.”
Fye ended the night with 8 kills and 1 ace block. Hicks had 4 kills while White contributed 3 kills and 1 ace serve.For more on this story, see the June 20 print or e-editions of The Crete News.