OCTOBER 25, 2000

Chieftains advance to title match

By John Montgomery
Sports Writer

OLD FORT -- Despite the fact Hopewell-Loudon coach Dave Reinhart wants to successfully defend the Chieftains' state title -- again -- this year, there was one aspect of last year's championship team he wanted to avoid entering Tuesday's Division IV district semifinal against Calvert.

Playing flat.

That's what happened last year when the Chieftains tangled with Fremont St. Joseph in the sectional.

Last year, the Crimson Streaks handed Hopewell-Loudon just its second game loss of 1999 in the first game of their sectional match, led 9-7 in the second game and were up 6-3 in the second.

But the Chieftains found a way then to battle back to avoid the upset, eventually ending their second straight perfect season with their third straight state title.

And while a loss Tuesday to Calvert would not have seemed like an upset to many, it was something Reinhart didn't want to leave a door open for.

"This was a big stepping stone for us," he said after the Chieftains earned the 15-5, 15-13 win. "This is where upsets happen."

But not this year, though Tuesday's match had the possibility to go either way many times.

Calvert, which ends the year 20-4, led 2-0 early in the first game before the 23-1 Chieftains pulled ahead 3-2 on the strength of two of Beth Cook's four aces on the night and a kill from Mackenzie Crum.

The Senecas would go up 4-3 a few minutes later off two Hopewell-Loudon hitting errors, but they'd never lead in the game again.

Emily Clouse served up an ace for Hopewell-Loudon, Calvert's Kristen Kastner misplayed a ball and Lauren Kelbley smashed one of her match-high 12 kills to put the Chieftains up 6-4.

Calvert closed to within 6-5 a little later when Sheena Werling pounded a kill, but a kill by Cook put the Chieftains up 7-5 and Elizabeth Hoover served up six straight service points for Hopewell-Loudon to put the first game out of reach.

It was exactly what Reinhart was looking for.

"We had a stretch there where we ran about five offensive plays for points," Reinhart said. "That pretty well did it (in the first game)."

Calvert coach Lisa Lucius had to agree.

"We got beat by a very smart, great team once again," she said. "They know where they're supposed to be and when they're supposed to be there, and they were."

The second game was much closer.

The Chieftains slipped ahead 3-0, only to see the Senecas battle back for a 7-4 advantage in a game where no one led by more than three points.

Hopewell-Loudon would tie it up 8-8 on two Calvert hitting mistakes and later went up 10-9 on an ace by Clouse, but again the Senecas refused to go away and grabbed an 11-10 lead when Hopewell-Loudon's Kim Norris hit the ball into the net.

Then, according to Reinhart, came one of the better coaching moves for his team. But it wasn't from him.

"Probably one of the biggest coaching moves was called by Mackenzie Crum when she said, 'I need a break' (when it was her turn to serve)," he said. "I put a sophomore (Brandy Arbogast) in and she nailed two aces for me. I give Mackenzie a lot of credit for speaking up, there."

Those two aces put the Chieftains up 12-11 and they never trailed again.

Hopewell-Loudon later pushed the lead to 14-11 and had to scrap for the 15-13 win after two hitting mistakes led to Calvert points, but the result was a welcome sight for Reinhart.

"We just wanted to win. We wanted to come out with a win," he said.

And the Chieftains did, using a balanced attack to do it.

Clouse not only handed out 36 assists, but also had six points, two aces and seven digs.

Norris and Cook also each had six points, with both of them pounding seven kills and coming up with 14 digs.

Crum finished with seven kills and 15 digs, Elizabeth Hoover topped the servers with seven points while adding 10 digs, Arbogast ended with three points and Stacy Jones had two points, five kills and 16 digs.

All 76 of those digs meant a lot of Calvert spikes didn't fall for kills, just one of the "little" things that the Chieftains did so well to win, despite the fact her Senecas weren't afraid to face the three-time defending state champs.

"They did do the little things, they pretty much touched every ball," she said. "Hopewell-Loudon is always so intimidating, but our girls really believed (they could win). I don't think it had to really do with the name (Hopewell-Loudon), which a lot of people talk about, and that's a good thing."

Jen Meier led the Calvert attack, dishing out 16 assists while also getting five points and four digs.

Sheena Werling registered six kills, four points and 11 digs, Hillary Hepp served up two points and came up with eight digs, Laura Kuhn smashed six kills and had two aces, Kristen Kastner ended with two points, three kills, two blocks and four digs, Andrea Weber accounted for two points and two digs and Carrie Weber added two digs.

The Chieftains now advance to the district title match against Riverdale set for this Saturday at 5 p.m. at Liberty-Benton.