Rockets roll by Bellevue

OLD FORT — Bellevue's number was had.After losing to Oak Harbor in the very first match of the season, the Lady Red got a chance at redemption Tuesday.Things didn't change much.The Rockets rolled to a 25-14, 25-16, 25-20 win in a Division IV district semifinal at Old Fort High School."We didn't show up to play," Bellevue coach Liana Petitti said. "It's that simple. We did every drill in the book. We were more prepared than we could have been, but we didn't show up to play. We walked in scared and that's what happens."Bellevue finished the season 19-5, co-champions of the Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division."We have a lot to look forward to," Petitti said. "We return almost the same entire team next year. A lot of good things came from this year and we have a lot to strive for."Oak Harbor topped Bellevue 25-18, 25-21 on Aug. 16 in Bellevue."We watched it and analyzed it," Petitti said. "We watched how they played against Clyde (last week in a sectional final). We did not play well when we played them the first time. I think we are a much better team right now than we were two months ago."We didn't show up tonight."The two teams played even early. Tied at 11 in the first set, the Rockets (20-4) won four straight points that included consecutive hitting errors by Bellevue.After a Lady Red timeout, two more errors on the Lady Red gave Oak Harbor a 17-11 lead.The Rockets controlled the set from there as Tatum Baumgartner got hot. The Oak Harbor senior had four kills in a span of five points to put the Rockets ahead 22-13.A kill from Morgan Lalonde and violation on the Lady Red put Oak Harbor up 1-0.The Rockets took that momentum into the second set. Oak Harbor led just 7-5 when it sprinted off the next seven points. Baumgartner had three aces in the run, capped on back-to-back kills by Lalonde and Myley Sandwisch.Bellevue struggled to get anything going early, but played better the second half of the set.The problem for the Lady Red was the start they had in the set.Each time Bellevue got within striking distance, Oak Harbor had the answer. Late in the set, Sandwisch pummeled consecutive kills and a kill from Maddie Schiets put Bellevue down 2-0."I think we came out nervous and jittery and that's to be expected," Petitti said. "It comes down to a couple simple things. Do your job, but we didn't do our job."The Lady Red continued to fight in Set 3. They trailed 6-1 early, but rallied to tie the set at 8 on an Oak Harbor error.The Rockets answered with four straight points and the set was never tied again.Bellevue didn't allow Oak Harbor to run away with the set, drawing within 21-18 late in the set. But, too many Bellevue errors, plus a kill from Sandwisch ended the match.Sandwisch finished with 14 kills for Oak Harbor while Baumgartner had 10."We had to stop their outside hitters and we didn't do that," Petitti said. "We had to hit deep corners and sharp corners and we didn't do that either. We practiced that, but didn't execute."Finley LaPata paced the Lady Red with six kills while Calie Cramer had four.Kate Baptista tallied 12 digs, LaPata had 10 digs and Ellie Freitag served up 10 assists.Hallie McCarthy and Kaitlyn Turinsky are the lone seniors for Bellevue."They're irreplaceable," Petitti said. "Hallie is a phenomenal leader and phenomenal person. She's the example of working hard until things go your way. Kaitlyn is an example of working hard until you get good."Unfortunately, it was the end of her career when she was getting really, really good. Give her another year and she'd be hard to stop."