Clyde, Bellevue win to set up district semifinal clash

CLYDE — Clyde and Bellevue. Can you feel the intensity? The Fliers and Lady Red both took care of business Thursday night in a pair of three-set Division IV district volleyball quarterfinals at The Hanger. Their reward? A third meeting this season between the Route 20 rivals. That will happen at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Gibsonburg in a district semifinal. Second-seeded Clyde advanced with a dominating 25-14, 25-11, 25-15 sweep of seventh-seeded Napoleon. Third-seeded Bellevue eliminated sixth-seeded Wauseon 25-8, 25-14, 25-21. The Fliers used 16 big kills from senior Lauren Harrah and got eight kills from senior Lily Ball. Senior DeLani Durst added 33 assists and three aces and senior Miley Glass added 22 digs. Mallory Eastby, the Fliers' fifth senior, had a strong floor game as the Clyde veterans played their last match in their home gym. "Seniors came out to play and did a good job leading everybody," Clyde coach Shelley Rogers said. "We got the whole bench in so that was really fun. "It's a great group of seniors and they will be deeply missed. This is what they wanted and everybody is on the same page and works hard." The seniors posed for photos looking up at their senior banners afterward. "It's emotional knowing I'll never walk in this gym as a player again, but it's rewarding," Durst said. "The seniors, we won't play again together. They mean a lot, knowing the impact we've made." Clyde improved to 16-7 and has one of the best résumés in the area this season with wins against Norwalk, Huron, Columbian and Galion. But Bellevue (12-10) swept the Fliers this season and will try for the trifecta. "We have to get over the mind block. It's just a team over there," Durst said. "Even though we're rivals it's gonna be a good game. We have a lot of heart on our team and I think we'll come through." Clyde and Bellevue are neighbors on the map, so the players know each other. "For us it's more of a mental game," Rogers said. "Being so close to each other, a lot of them work together; they're friends. That plays into it. Both rosters are great girls and that makes it so hard because they both want it so bad. Both times Bellevue played us they came out ready to go." Rogers' cousin is the mother of Bellevue standout Finley LaPata, which leads to plenty of volleyball talk at family gatherings. "We've got some blood going on so it's an ongoing joke in our family," Rogers said. The Lady Red improved to 12-10 with their sweep of Wauseon. Senior Brooke Brown led the way with 10 kills. She hit some rockets, including one that ended the match. "It's a new season and records don't matter anymore," Brown said. "We're just gonna come in every single day like it's our last and give it everything we got." LaPata and Lila Krall each had seven kills for Bellevue. LaPata added 10 digs. Senior setter Payton Hicks had 18 assists and recorded her 1,000 career assist on a Krall kill that gave Belleue a 21-14 lead in the second set. Ellie Freitag added 17 assists as Bellevue spread it around on offense. "We've been working on that a lot, getting more from every person in our offense," Bellevue coach Liana Petitti said. "That way we can be more unpredictable. "It was nice to see us come out and play strong after having so many days off and not being in that game setting. We've been practicing super hard and working on those little things that make a difference." Bellevue used a 10-0 run to take control in the first set. Freitag had two aces in that stretch and a Brown kill gave the Lady Red a 1-0 lead. Bellevue finished the second set with five straight points and had to fend off Wauseon in the third. Bellevue led 22-21 before winning the last three points, including a tip from Brown and the final kill. Now it's another date with Clyde, a team the Lady Red knows well. Brown played club volleyball last winter with Fliers Lucy and Miley Glass and Lily Ball. "We see Clyde a lot. We know what they do, they know what we do," Brown said. "It's gonna be a really good game. We just gotta come out and play our game and hopefully we come out with the dub."