Published: November 05, 2009 11:27 pm      

Cavaliers fall short in sectional finals

PRINCETON — Lindsay Fritz literally leapt to the occasion. She had 14 kills, Kara Arvon added six kills and Greater Beckley Christian easily beat Mercer Christian 25-9, 25-7, 25-17 on Thursday in the Region III, Section 2 championship game at Mercer Christian Academy.

“I feel like the girls really played well,” said Greater Beckley head coach Kerie Lopez. “I was able to play everybody tonight and they just played together as a team. I’m happy for them.”

“I don’t know where their heads are,” said Mercer Christian head coach Crystal Koppler. “We weren’t moving our feet. We weren’t talking. We weren’t covering. We just weren’t ready. I don’t know how to explain it other than it was just a mental thing and they weren’t there.”

Fritz spent the match repeatedly levitating above the net. Thanks to the pinpoint setting of Kaitlyn O’Neal, the junior sent spikes down to the floor uncontested. She had six kills in each of the first two games, giving the Crusaders a huge advantage.

“We practice a lot,” Fritz said. “We practice working on blocks and stuff, so that helps a lot.”

“She definitely is a strong talent at the net and she loves the game,” Lopez said. “When she’s on, it is just fun to watch.”

“That’s part of us not moving our feet to cover. We cover like we were supposed to, she shouldn’t have had that many kills,” Koppler said. “Now granted, she’s a very good player. But ... we could shut her down if we wanted to.”

Arvon was just as impressive. The only reason she did not have as many kills as Fritz was that she was confined to the back row as her teammate was leading Greater Beckley runs. But she stepped out of the shadow in the third game, compiling four kills, a block and an ace.

“I thank my team for getting us the passes and the sets because otherwise we would be able to do nothing,” Arvon said. “I did gymnastics for 11 years. So that’s where I got my jumping ability, obviously.”

“She’s a great block, she really is,” Lopez said. “She is just a sophomore. So she’s got (time) to work on it more. But we are blessed to have two that can alternate at different times.”

The Cavaliers gave their exuberant crowd something to cheer about when they went on a seven-point run to close the score to 22-16 in the final game. But Arvon ended the run with a block and soon the Crusaders ended the match.

“We just have to put it all together I think,” Koppler said. “We’ve said all season that our goal is to glorify God and when we aren’t giving our all that’s not giving the glory to God.”

Greater Beckley Christian (32-13) and Mercer Christian (18-11) will play in Saturday’s Region III tournament in Beckley. They have yet to learn who they will face in the opening round.

“Tomorrow, I’m actually going to give them a little bit of a physical rest,” Lopez said. “But we are going to watch game film and hopefully we will just focus on what we didn’t do well on this film.”

“We’ll definitely work on covering,” Koppler said. “We’ve been working on it all season. Some nights we do it and some nights we don’t.”

— jlockett@bdtonline.com