By Cort Reynolds
FINDLAY - Top-seeded Arlington eliminated spunky Ada in four sets at the Div. IV district volleyball semifinals in Findlay Monday night, ending the season of the defending district champions.
The Bulldogs tied it up at one set apiece after winning game two. But the Red Devils held off a late rally to win the final set and knock out the third-seeded Lady Bulldogs by a 25-20, 22-25, 25-16, 25-22 score.
With the defeat, Ada finished its campaign with a 12-12 record. Arlington improved to 19-5 and advanced to the district finals Oct. 25 against conference rival McComb with the win.
"We fought hard and played really well, they just had a couple of runs where we couldn't side out," said Ada first-year head coach Kyleigh Tabor.
"I’m very proud of the girls for how they played; we started off really strong, we just couldn’t finish," she added. "We were ahead in the first set until the end, and were down at the end of the fourth set by quite a bit but had a huge comeback at the end. But we got stopped at 22."
All-Northwest Conference sophomore middle Megan Light led the Bulldog hitters with 11 kills, and she added two blocks.
Setter Sidney Gossard passed out 25 assists and hit for six kills. The versatile junior also made 18 digs and served four aces.
Senior Rilan Conley knocked down six kills, came up with 16 digs and served one ace. Senior Raina England contributed five kills and a pair of blocks.
Senior libero Morgan Swick came up with 17 digs and served up a pair of aces. Sophomore Miranda Wills hustled up 10 digs, while classmate Kendal Guagenti also came up with 10 digs.
Sophomore Aubrey Madison added one ace.
"Arlington had a couple of hitters that we couldn’t stop and a few great servers." said Tabor. "It was a well-fought match, and I’m extremely proud of my team and how hard we played."
Seniors England, Swick and Conley played their final Bulldog matches. "We will greatly miss our three seniors next year, and I wish them all the best in their futures," said Tabor.
Arlington also beat visiting Ada in a close 2-0 match on September 1.
"I’m really proud of my team for this season," summed up Tabor. "With losing the seniors we did last year, a lot of teams and coaches didn’t think that we would compete this year and the term 'rebuilding year' was used a couple of times - but I never once said that to my team because I believed in them and knew I had a great group of talented athletes.
"I feel like we proved ourselves and fought in every match we played this season," she continued. "There were many highlights and a couple matches that we didn’t win but we played extremely well in and should be proud of.
"We played a tough schedule and had the privilege of playing a couple of the top teams in the state which only made us better. One highlight that we had was taking a set from St. Henry and Coldwater for the first time.
"At the beginning of the season, I said defense was what would be our strong point this year and every match we played I felt we were defensively solid and had many great digs.
"We also had a great serving team and really kept teams off balance. I'm excited to see what the future will bring to Ada’s volleyball team. I’m honored to have been their coach since seventh grade, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls," she added.
The district finals are Thursday at Findlay starting at 7:30 p.m. McComb (18-6) is the second seed in the district and defeated fourth seed Carey (12-13) in the other semifinal. Arlington nipped McComb 3-2 in regular season BVC play earlier this season.
