NEW WASHINGTON – Buckeye Central coach Missy McDougal was thrilled after Thursday’s tournament win over rival Wynford.
Not necessarily because the Buckettes played a perfect game, far from it, but because of how they handled the adversity on the court.
“It’s a sectional championship, and we’re never going to be upset about that,” McDougal said after a 25-14, 25-14, 25-17 sweep. “The one thing I was really proud of the girls is that we had some errors, and the last two sets we didn’t start off well, but I didn’t see any bad attitudes come out. I didn’t see them get mad at themselves, they just kept playing and kept fighting through — maybe we’re showing some maturity.
“That’s what you want to see, a team that’s willing to battle and not fall apart when things get tough.”
Not using a single timeout on the night, she wanted to make sure they had to battle out of bad spots. In the second and third sets, Wynford came out the aggressor and led early. But both times the Buckettes clawed back and pulled away as the sets progressed — one instance was a 13-1 run in the second set to turn a 5-1 deficit to a 14-6 lead.
“We were ready to get out of here, they’ve got dip night tonight,” McDougal laughed. “But no, I wanted the girls to struggle a little bit … I don’t want to have to bail them out. The only time I thought about using timeout is when Maren (McDougal) had some blood on her hand, but the girls for the most part played really well. They played together, and I just let them keep going to get some momentum.
“At the beginning I wasn’t too worried, it’s not the first time we’ve started out slow, but I’d like to fix that so we don’t continue to do that the rest of tournaments.”
A lot of that slow start was a credit to Wynford’s scrappiness. The Royals played as if they had nothing to lose and it led to several phenomenal rallies.
“We definitely took this week and prepared very well,” Royals coach Donielle Crall said. “The girls knew where we needed to be and what we needed to do coming into tonight … they were focused, they practiced hard — we probably had some of our best practices this week — we knew who was going to hit where and we knew where we had to be, we just didn’t capitalize on it.
“We had some good plays and we were up early on them in two of the three sets, we just couldn’t keep that momentum going.”
Wynford had to be scrappy to stay in it, especially with how the Buckettes were serving.
“(Megan Siefert and Harper Kantzer) probably 10 or 12 aces together,” McDougal said. “We had a great serving night, we only had a couple misses and kept Wynford out of system most of the game. Even when we weren’t getting aces, most of them weren’t perfect passes and it made it hard for them to get the ball to their hitters which is one of the things we’ve prided ourselves on all season.”
Crall saw her inaugural season leading the Royals come to an end, and with that, a solid foundation was laid.
“There should have been a few more games we won, but for the most part we competed,” Crall said. “We weren’t getting blown out in any of the games, we were right there in all of our games this season. We lose three seniors, so we have some shoes to fill, but we return a majority of our team and we’re just looking to build from here.
“Addison Sebring’s my outside hitter is the one that keeps our spirits up and keeps us going, she’s definitely going to be missed. And our two back row players, Makayla (Morrison) and Briley (Hildreth), just bring it. Those two were definitely locked in, they were ready, they didn’t want their season to end.”
As for the top-seeded Buckettes, they move on to a Division IV district semifinal on Tuesday at 6 p.m. against Mansfield Christian after the Flames upset reigning district champions New London.
“We (watched) their game here and we’ll watch some film,” McDougal said. “It’s gonna be who shows up, who’s ready to move, who’s ready to dig up some balls?”
Colonel Crawford makes district return
Three years removed from the program’s first sectional title in a decade, No. 2 Colonel Crawford swept No. 7 Bucyrus 25-9, 25-20, 25-18 Thursday night at home to punch their ticket to Shelby for a district semifinal against No. 6 South Central who upset No. 4 Seneca East in four sets.
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