November 6, 2009 — In the game of volleyball, very little can be predicted. That became quite clear Thursday during the District 10 Class AA quarterfinals at Meadville High School’s House of Thrills.
Unpredictable, however, was just fine by General McLane and Meadville, who needed the bare minimum to decide their fate in Saturday’s semifinal round back at the House of Thrills. That wasn’t the case on the other side of the bracket.
While McLane and Meadville settled Pool B well ahead of schedule yesterday with the defending District 10 Class AA champions winning the pool and Meadville finishing second, it wasn’t until nearly two hours later that either of those teams knew just who they would be playing in Saturday’s semifinals. That is because there was an all out dogfight happening on the other side of the gym in Pool A, a fight that included unbeaten Wilmington falling into a one-game playoff with Warren for its survival.
In the end, it was Fort LeBoeuf coming away with the Pool A title and Wilmington hanging on for second place to put Fort LeBoeuf, Wilmington, Meadville and General McLane in the semifinals for the second year in a row.
“I tell the girls every day, ‘you haven’t done anything yet,’” General McLane coach Mike Merriam said. “These teams aren’t going to lay down. You have to bring it every play, every day. And that’s what we all saw here (last night).”
With that said, Merriam was extremely pleased with not only his team’s performance yesterday, but Fort LeBoeuf as well, and hopes that Erie County will begin earning some respect in volleyball. Last year, General McLane became the first team from outside Crawford County to win a District 10 championship in Class A or AA since 2000.
Never has a team outside of Crawford County won a title in either of those classifications two years in a row. There is a 75 percent chance of that happening Saturday.
“It’s commendable for Erie volleyball,” Merriam said. “Ft. LeBoeuf plays in our region. It speaks well that volleyball is maybe getting better here in Erie. We don’t get a good (reputation). Everyone thinks French Creek (Crawford County) volleyball is strong. Maybe now we’ll start getting some credit.”
They are part of the way there.
In order to get a chance at repeating that District 10 championship, though, General McLane will have to first get past Wilmington in a rematch of last year’s title match. The Greyhounds had their backs against the wall early when they suffered a two-game loss to Warren in pool play, but came back to beat Warren, 25-18, in a playoff to earn a spot in the semifinals.
On the other side, Meadville avoids that third meeting of the season with the Greyhounds for now and will face Fort LeBoeuf, which captured the Pool A title on tie-breaker criteria, in the semifinals.
The semifinals begin at 1 p.m. with the finals at 3 p.m.
Meadville is thankful for a second opportunity after not playing as well as it would have liked in pool play. The Bulldogs finished the pool at 2-1 with wins over North East (26-24, 25-18) and Harbor Creek (25-20, 25-10), but were not particularly thrilled with their performance against the Lancers.
Going into its match against the Lancers, Meadville already knew it had advanced to the semifinals.
“Knowing we were coming back on Saturday caused us to play a little relaxed, I think,” Meadville coach Tammy Webber said. “I told them to play aggressive, but we played a little tentative. You can’t do that against good teams. You have to play aggressive. They need to learn not to just play safe.”
Still, Webber is just thankful she wasn’t involved in the thrilling action on the other side of the gym.
“All it takes is one match,” Webber said. “We’ve seen it before. It really is unpredictable.”
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