LIZTON — After winning their first sectional title in 23 years last season, the Tri-West Bruins started a new streak beating the Covenant Christian Warriors in four, 20-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-21.
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Coming off a victory over North Putnam earlier Saturday morning, Tri-West was ready to play Covenant, who went five with Cascade less than six hours earlier.
“The first time we played them, they beat us in three,” Tri-West coach Stacey Rogers said. “We got to kind of strategize with ourselves, sike ourselves up, and talk ourselves into the fact we know we can beat ‘em. We just tried our best to play the mental game tonight and mentally we were on top.”
Both teams came out strong with a prime matchup of Kimberly Smith for Covenant and Aubrey Cook for Tri-West. Staying tight for most of the first set, the Warriors began to pull away after six straight points courtesy of Laura Johnson.
Tri-West began to muscle back but Covenant was too much and jumped to a quick one set lead, 25-20.
Showing her strength as one of only three seniors, Cook started the second set strong with three kills to give the Bruins a 5-0 lead. Not counting out the Warriors, they pushed back to a tie but it didn’t take long for Tri-West to regain the lead.
Taking over at the 15-14 point, the Bruins never looked back winning set point on a serve out of bounds, 25-20.
Once again a tight battle ensued in the third set, as Tri-West saw themselves with the lead for the first 14 points.
Tying it up Covenant tried to scrape back from a 23-17 deficit but once again Cook stepped up and slammed one home to bring the Bruins within one win of another sectional title, 25-18.
Going into set four it was do or die for the Warriors. The Bruins, however, had other plans striking out to a commanding 7-3 lead only to widen the gap at 15-5. A timeout called by Covenant seemed to be motivation scoring six straight points to cut Tri-West’s lead to three.
Tri-West once again went on a five point run making it 21-15 but Covenant wouldn’t lie down. Ultimately some costly miscues by the Warriors handed the Bruins their second straight sectional title, 25-21.
“We’re obviously heart-broken and disappointed,” Covenant coach Erin Oppy said. “We didn’t play like ourselves. The sectional championship became bigger than the game. We tried really hard to just keep it as just another game but the mental side really got to us.”
Tri-West looks to ride its momentum into Saturday’s regional match against Eastern Greene in Bloomfield.
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