Senior co-captain Emma Hill was the difference Tuesday night as the Fillmore Lady Eagles turned back the Alexander Lady Trojans in four sets in Section V Class D girls volleyball crossover competition at Pavilion High School.
Fillmore’s 25-19, 25-23, 24-26, 25-22 victory puts the Allegany County team into the Class D title match against undefeated Pavilion at 6 p.m. Thursday at Caledonia-Mumford High School.
“(Hill) was spectacular,” said Alexander Coach Marcia Hirsch this morning, speaking of the 6-foot-1 middle hitter who was the Class D3 tournament MVP. “I don’t have the stats in front of me but she had a lot of kills (scoring hits), and we just couldn’t stop her.”
Hirsch said her squad wasn’t at the top its game, but battled back from early deficits in the sets to stay in the match. In Alexander’s third set win, sophomore Alyssa Kramer served the last five points as the Lady Trojans rallied from a 24-21 deficit.
Kramer and senior co-captain Sam Sawyer led the way for Alexander, which finishes at 19-4 after capturing the school’s first sectional championship in 42 years.
Despite the loss, Hirsch said she’s pleased with the team’s progress.
“I'm really happy with where we are,” she said. “I think it takes some time. We haven't won the title for so long that kids almost didn’t know what they would be playing for afterwards. But now they experienced it and, hopefully, we can do it again soon.”
She said it would have been great to advance, but the team achieved its primary goal of winning the Class D1 title.
“Our goal was to get that (Section V) block and I think after that it was kind of like, ‘Oh, we're still playing,’” she said.
Kramer will be back next season as will juniors Julia Yax and Melanie Pohl and sophomore Riley Powell.
“And we’ve got some good jayvee players ready to move up,” Hirsch said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I think we’ll be alright.”
The winner of tomorrow night’s match between Fillmore, 13-6, and the Lady Gophers, 23-0, will move into the Far West Regionals against Chautauqua Lake of Section VI at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Le Roy High School.
