Lady Red lock up SBC Lake title

BELLEVUE — Kaitlyn Turinsky or Hallie McCarthy ending it only seemed fitting. Sophomores when Bellevue coach Liana Petitti took over two years ago, the lone seniors for the Lady Red on Senior Night came up big for Bellevue with a share of the Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division title on the line. Turinsky and McCarthy combined for 20 kills including Turinsky's match winner as Bellevue defeated Norwalk 22-25, 25-22, 25-12, 25-14. "I have goosebumps because I care so much for those two girls," Bellevue coach Liana Petitti said. "They are two of the most unselfish, kind and hard-working people. They're leaders on our team. They're phenomenal to be around. I'm so happy their Senior Night is ending with a win." With the win, Bellevue (18-4, 8-2 SBC Lake) splits the league title with Tiffin Columbian (15-7, 8-2). Norwalk dropped to 10-11, 4-6. "The goal is to win. The goal is to be champions," Petitti said. "Obviously as a team, we've been working so, so hard. We've had our own adversity. These girls just believed in each other. They believed in me and they believed in the coaching staff. They fought for each other and did everything we asked them to. "Now, they're champions." It was all Bellevue in the final two sets. In Set 3, the Lady Red quickly went up 5-1 after a Turinsky kill and later, Bellevue scored three straight points for an 11-4 edge. Norwalk couldn't quite find the push it did in the first two sets. Instead, the Lady Red ended the set on a 9-1 run, going up 2-1. "Bellevue got more consistent and kept the ball in play," Norwalk coach Sarah Kipp said. "In the first set, I think they missed quite a few serves. The rest of the way, they tightened it up and didn't make as many errors. They picked apart at our defense." Set 4 was almost identical to Set 3. Two serving aces by Kate Baptista gave Bellevue a 7-1 lead early in the set. Norwalk struggled to get any offense going and found itself down 11-3 after a kill from Mazie Gracemyer. The Truckers scored points here and there, but the consistency was nowhere to be found. Calie Cramer smacked a kill, Ellie Freitag served up an ace and Turnisky tallied the final kill to give Bellevue the win and its first league title since sharing with Norwalk in 2019. The Lady Red won the league title outright in 2018. "We played super sloppy in the first set," Petitti said. "We had five missed serves and four hitting errors. But, Norwalk comes to play every single time and we know that about them. That's what makes them a tough opponent but a great win." The Truckers were hot from the start, playing with a plethora of energy. Kills from Sydney Moehlman and Ainslee King helped Norwalk to a quick 7-1 lead. Bellevue picked up its play a little bit, but a service error on the Lady Red and kill from Maddie Gamble kept Norwalk ahead 13-5. Bellevue chipped away at the deficit, but every time it got close, the Truckers had an answer. The Lady Red were within two points several times including down 21-19, but King lined a pair of kills as Norwalk went up 24-19. After three straight points by Bellevue, a kill from Gamble gave Norwalk the opening set. "I thought our seniors came out and played really well," Kipp said. "Raegan (Mooney) and Sydney were excited and did some really good things in that first set. Sawyer Wineman was fantastic tonight with the number of digs she had and keeping the ball off the floor. She was incredibly effective for us tonight." The second set was just as tight, but Bellevue didn't allow Norwalk to make that run and keep a lead. Bellevue scored five straight points to go up 9-6 and extended the lead to 15-9 following kills from Finley LaPata and Kaitlyn Turinsky. Similar to the first set, each time Norwalk got within striking distance, Bellevue had the response. Ahead just 21-20, a kill from LaPata was followed by a net violation on Norwalk for a 24-21 Bellevue lead. A hitting error on the Lady Red cut the Truckers' deficit to two, but LaPata pounded another kill to even the match at a set apiece. "I hate to keep repeating myself, but when you can't score points on your own and you're waiting for someone else to make a mistake, that's the gamechanger," Kipp said. "Right now, we're kind of in the mode of waiting to score points off of other people's mistakes instead of going on runs and scoring our own points." Moehlman finished with 13 kills while Gamble had 12 kills. King contributed 10 kills, Wineman registered 26 digs, Erica Tyler tallied 19 assists and Lola Schlotterer added 12 assists. "They do a very nice job of making teams stay fundamental defensively," said Kipp of the Lady Red. "They hit at seams and they hit at corners. We struggled with that tonight." Bellevue slipped past Norwalk on Sept. 23, 25-23, 25-23, 25-22. "In the first matchup, we had several leads and we gave them up," Petitti said. "That's what we saw a little bit of in the second set. Our biggest focus tonight was to get leads and keep them. We had to take care of business." LaPata topped Bellevue with 16 kills and 15 digs while Turinsky finished with 14 kills. Baptista added 14 digs, Emma Krall totaled 10 digs, Freitag dished 27 assists and Holly Caranfa registered 15 assists. "We've talked a lot late in the season to work smarter, not harder," Petitti said. "What can we determine about our opponent and how can we utilize that? In the third and fourth set, we were really paying attention to their defense and we made adjustments to that."