Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

MONROVIA – Western Boone knew that if they were going to beat Tri-West and win their third-straight sectional title on Saturday night, they were going to have to be locked in and play solid volleyball. Unfortunately for the Stars, they got off to a slow start, dug themselves a hole, and ultimately lost to the Bruins 3-1 (25-18, 25-15, 22-25, 25-17). The Stars finish the season 20-9. “We couldn’t get our serve receive going,” Western Boone head coach Laura Bragg said. “Tri-West has some amazing servers, so it wasn’t like we were mishandling easy serves. Caroline (Ward) played out of her mind tonight, and it was a lot of them being in system all the time and us being out of system. We couldn’t win with Raegan hitting out of system all the time.” Tri-West used a 7-0 run in the middle of the first set to grab control and take a 1-0 lead. The second set was tied at 6 early, and the Bruins led 14-10 a short time later. But again the Bruins had a run, pushing the lead to 19-11 and never letting the Stars back within six. Western Boone came into the final after a grueling five-set win over Danville in the semifinal earlier in the day. Bragg said she didn’t think that had any real effect on the start, the Bruins just did a better job of executing their gameplan. “We were resting for a good three hours before, so the girls were ready,” Bragg said. “Tri-West just served us tough and we couldn’t adjust to do a better job.” Western Boone fought back in the third set. Down 13-9, the Stars went on a 5-1 run to tie the set at 14. After being tied at 16 and 17, pushed the lead to 22-17 and held on to force a fourth set. “We tried moving Alayna (Christner) to the middle more, and she shut that down and did really well,” Bragg said. “But again, our passing just a little off. You can’t beat a team like Tri-West when Janie (Ransom) is setting from the 10-foot line.” The fourth set followed the same script as the first two. Western Boone hung around, trailing 14-12, but the Bruins went on a 6-1 run to push the lead to seven. Western Boone got as close as five, but could never get any closer. “It was tough in that run because Raegan (Durbin) was in the back row,” Bragg said. “Emmerson (Gott) was doing a great job, and we tried to get her some chances, but again, we were just too far off the net to set for her.” For the Stars, it was their seventh-straight 20-win season, and they won the Sagamore Conference title for the third-straight year. They graduate three seniors, but will return several key pieces next year. “I’m really proud of this group,” Bragg said. “We graduated a big senior class last year that had a lot of success the previous two years and I really don’t think a lot of people expected a lot from us. But we talked this summer about how people might underestimate us, and they really worked hard and came together as a team to play our best at the end of the year.” Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.