Tornadoes sweep rival Bellevue, now in 3-way tie in SBC Lake

BELLEVUE – Columbian carried the momentum. After winning the last three sets against Bellevue for a reverse sweep Sept. 4, the Tornadoes were relentless Tuesday. Behind 18 kills from Kaela Jenkins and 40 assists by Avary Brown, Columbian swept Bellevue 25-23, 25-17, 25-17, in a key Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division showdown. "I was very happy with the girls," Columbian coach Hope Boes said. "Everyone contributed and everybody worked together. We've been stressing working together as a team and they really did great." Columbian defeated Bellevue 21-25, 22-25, 25-21, 25-14, 15-11 on Sept. 4 in Tiffin. Bellevue (15-4, 5-2), Columbian (12-6, 5-2) and Perkins (10-6, 5-2) are all tied in the loss column as the final two weeks of the season approach. Norwalk (9-9, 4-3) is a game back. "We just came out unfocused and not ready to go," Bellevue coach Liana Petitti said. "When we don't play our game, that's what is going to happen. We're going to get beat. We didn't control our side of the net and played sloppy and timid." Both teams struggled for separation in the first set. The Tornadoes won three straight points to go up 17-14, but Bellevue tied the set at 21. From there, Abby Lewis smacked a kill before consecutive aces from Lexi Beaston put the Tornadoes up 24-21. Bellevue fended off a pair of set points as Calie Cramer lined a kill and Columbian committed an error. But, Jenkins bludgeoned her fifth kill of the set to put Columbian up 1-0. "We wanted to react to the ball defensively," said Boes of the differences between the first and second meeting between the schools. "We've been working on that and it was much better tonight. We can work on it a little more, but that's true for everybody." Things went from good to better for the Tornadoes in Set 2. It was just an 8-7 Columbian lead when the Tornadoes sprinted away. Columbian used a 9-1 run, including two kills and two blocks from Jenkins, to go up 17-8. From there, the teams traded points until Josie Kancler put down a kill and Bellevue tallied an error as Columbian went ahead 2-0. Columbian never allowed Bellevue to get any momentum or flow going throughout the night and that continued in the third set. The Tornadoes jumped out to a small lead and slowly built on it until they were up 13-7 following kills from Jenkins and Lewis. Bellevue didn't look like the same team that entered on a nine-match winning streak. Beaston and Jenkins smacked kills, mercifully ending the Lady Red's tough evening. "It's tough to start off down 0-1, but we weren't out of it," Pettiti said. "We needed to clean some things up and we didn't. We addressed things we needed to do, but the scores in the second and third set reflected that we were not doing what we needed to do on our side of the net." Cramer led Bellevue with nine kills while Finley LaPata registered 10 digs and eight kills. Turinsky added five kills, Kate Baptista recorded 14 digs, and Ellie Freitag contributed 15 assists. "We didn't do our job or our thing," Petitti said. "We have normal people that play a big role and they didn't step up tonight. That trickled down all the way from our No. 1 to our No. 13." Brown effortlessly runs the potent Columbian offense with efficiency and precision. "She's very smart," said Boes of the junior. "She's a selfless player and she sees the court very well. She's aggressive on serving and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. All-around, she's a great girl and a great player." Beaston finished with 11 kills and 11 digs for Columbian. Lewis added eight kills and four blocks while Erica Raubenolt had 13 digs. Emma Daughtery finished with six digs, one shy of 1,000 for her career.