SHELBY (Crawford County Now) — Top seed Buckeye Central checked off a box here Tuesday night with a 3-set win over Mansfield Christian, 25-16, 25-12, 25-21 in a Northwest District Division VI district semifinal match.
After taking the first set with relative ease, the wheels started to come off a bit in set two. The Buckettes fell behind 9-5 and BC head coach Missy McDougal wasn’t pleased.
She quickly called a time out, which seemed to work.
“It was a good time out, I guess. It was a horrible start. They just needed to calm down a little bit,” McDougal said.
“It was one thing leading to another and it was moving; it wasn’t just one person. We had to reset and they did. Mansfield Christian doesn’t give up on balls, and they had a lot of energy.”
That’s putting it mildly. Buckeye Central then ran off 20 points to the Flames 3 to take the second set.
“My goal and the team’s goal was to get out of districts this year. We have that opportunity.”
Buckeye Central (19-5) takes on Van Buren (19-5) at Shelby Thursday at 6 p.m. for a district championship. The Black Knights beat Carey in four sets.
“We don’t take anybody for granted and we didn’t want to overlook anybody. We focused solely on Mansfield Christian, so I’ve got a lot of homework to do,” McDougal said.
Mansfield Christian was scrappy, chasing balls and showing great effort, despite its record.
“We weren’t taking advantage of the leads we had. We had a lead in the second, and then again there in the third. I was really hoping we could pull out the third set and maybe flip things a little bit, but we tried, and I felt like we fought at times,” Flames head coach Barbara McLeary said.
“Then there were times where we had a lot of miscommunication.”
The Flames finish at 12-13. Last year they took Buckeye Central to four sets before falling.
“I’ll watch film, and we’ll be ready for Thursday night. But I don’t spend a lot of time looking at the other teams. We want to see their tendencies and see who their best players are.”
Adelle Cramer kept the Flames in business getting several kills.
As is the case, however, AJ Jury and Maren McDougal, the senior anchors, came through when needed. That pair, along with Aleyse Siefert and Milania Chamberlain, got the Buckettes back in the driver’s seat.
“We have to focus on us and all the little things like the passing. Tonight I thought that was a little rough. We’ll clean that up and be ready to go,” she said.
The third set also started off slowly for Buckeye Central as it fell behind 6-1 before a Chamberlain kill righted the ship.
From there Emma Keller and Graceyn Hook (3 aces) pushed the lead to 12-9. But again, the Flames didn’t quit, rallying to pull within two at 18-16.
McDougal’s kill ended the match after a pair of Mansfield Christian errors.
“We wanted to win the league and get out of districts,” McDougal said. “But we didn’t play real sharp tonight. But you win and advance in the tournament. Tomorrow we’ll practice and get ready.”
“We were struggling a few times, and my goal was not to have Maren hit tonight, but 2 or 3 times she got it on serve-receive and she terminated both of them. I was really proud of her for stepping up and we know AJ can always get a point for us. We struggled a little bit to get her the ball tonight.”
The new Northwest District bracket pairings are not to most coaches’ liking, including McDougal’s.
“I think it’s horrible. It doesn’t feel like bringing Van Buren and Carey in is much of a district game. And for the winner of the second game to have to go to Wapakoneta … It’s more like a super-regional,” she said.
“I don’t understand it. But we’ve talked at our District 6 meeting, and I’m not the only coach who doesn’t like this. But, of course, we weren’t asked our opinion. We just show up and play the game that’s in front of us.”