Energetic Bellevue stays in tie for 1st in Lake

PERKINS TWP. — Bellevue needed a bounce-back win. The Lady Red were swept by Columbian on Tuesday, but took the court Thursday on Volley for the Cure night in a three-way tie atop the Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division. Now it's a two-way tie. Bellevue came out with energy, danced during timeouts and generally looked enthusiastic during a 25-14, 25-22, 19-25, 25-14 road win against Perkins. "We served really aggressive, we blocked well and played absolutely relentless defense," Bellevue coach Liana Petitti said. "We didn't see that on Tuesday and I was proud of them for coming back and playing our game. "When we play the way we need to play we're gonna dominate and I was proud of them for taking care of business." The Lady Red improved to 16-4 overall and 6-2 in the Lake. They are tied with Columbian for first place. The Tornadoes edged Norwalk in five sets Thursday. Bellevue finishes the regular season next week with two home matches — Tuesday against Sandusky and Thursday against Norwalk. The Lady Red swept both of those teams in the first round of division play. "We control our own destiny," Petitti said. "We just need to stay true to us. It's up to us and we're gonna do our best to take care of business." Bellevue stormed out to a quick lead by dominating the first set. The Lady Red went on a 10-0 run to take an 18-7 lead, helped by a pair of Finley LaPata kills and two Julia Dauch aces. Kills by Hallie McCarthy and Kaitlin Turinsky — the only two seniors on the Bellevue roster — finished the first set. Perkins (10-9, 5-3 Lake) fought back in Set 2 and tied it at 22 on a Viera Walker kill. The freshman finished the match with a team-high 13 kills. Bellevue won the last three points when Turinsky slammed home an overpass and Kate Baptista delivered two aces to put the Lady Red in control. Perkins took advantage of nine Bellevue errors in the third set to win 25-19. Walker had five of her kills in the set. In Set 4, Perkins made 10 errors and the Lady Red got its last two points on LaPata kills to close out the match. "That's a good team," said Perkins coach Brandon Duvall of Bellevue. "They have confidence and know what they're capable of doing. Until we can strike consistent fear in people they're not going to worry about the little things we do. We can come up with a big swing, we'll get a good block, we'll get an ace, but have to follow that up." Bellevue's balanced attack got 10 kills from LaPata, nine from Turinsky, eight from Calie Cramer and six from McCarthy. Ellie Freitag added 17 assists and 13 digs and Emma Krall had four aces. Baptista, the junior libero who spent much of the match diving to the floor, totaled 27 digs and reached 1,000 for her career in the second set. "It's a blessing she didn't get it Tuesday; the celebration feels a lot nicer tonight," Petitti said. "She's a really hard-working kid and she's grown so much since her freshman year. I'm happy she got it." The Lady Red did plenty of celebrating, singing songs during timeouts and dancing. "The bench makes a difference," Petitti said. "Our team feeds off of energy and that was something we were missing Tuesday. Every single player counts." Micah Slay finished with 10 kills for Perkins, which hosts Norwalk on Tuesday before visiting Clyde next Thursday to finish the Lake season. Braelyn Davie had 27 assists and 12 digs for the Pirates, who couldn't string together consecutive strong sets. "Frustration is our worst enemy," Duvall said. "We get frustrated and that kind of creeps around the team and we lose our leadership. I think I say it every week, but we have to maintain our competitiveness throughout the entire match."