HUDSON – The Riverside volleyball team set their goals for the 2009 season one year ago, and has been working toward them ever since.

Now, with Tuesday’s Division I regional semifinal victory over Wadsworth, the Beavers are in the “Elite Eight”—one win away from the state tournament.

Riverside, playing in its first regional match in school history, won it in four games by a 25-15, 25-20, 23-25, 25-22 count. It will play Stow-Munroe Falls, which defeated Brecksville-Broadview Heights in Tuesday’s second semifinal, in the regional championship match Saturday at 2 p.m., for a chance to go to Dayton. Saturday’s match, as was this one, will be played at Hudson High School.

“This team has been very goal-oriented and determined,” Riverside coach Stacy Sepelak said. “I have four seniors, five juniors and two sophomores who have been very dedicated to the sport. Last year, they really wanted to come out of districts and didn’t. They set their goal last year early.”

For the second straight match, Riverside (24-3) excelled in all phases of the game and did not suffer a lull, whereas Wadsworth (21-4) took some time to find its game.

Nicole Bayer led Riverside with 15 service points and added 49 assists, 12 digs and five ace spikes. Theresa Noewer had a team-leading 17 ace spikes and added 14 digs. Erika West contributed 10 points, 15 ace spikes and 25 digs. Liz Maczuzak had 10 ace spikes and three blocks, Jayne Nagy 13 points, and libero Allyson Clifford 20 digs.

The Beavers made good on 93.8 percent of their servesd (91 of 97) despite serving aggressively.

“I was just mainly thinking, ‘I have to go out there and kill every ball I touch,’” Maczuzak said. “I have to block everything. I have to be the one that controls the net. And I had awesome sets from Nicole that helped me to put some of them down.”

The Beavers came out like gangbusters, as they stretched a 15-13 edge to 25-15, with help from four points on Bayer’s serve.

West had five points, including the clincher, and Nagy four in that game.

The Beavers had the lead for the entire duration of Game 2, with Bayer serving for the initial five points. Wadsworth (21-4) kept in it and eventually closed within 20-19, but West got the serve back with a kill from the back row, and Nagy served for three points before a Noewer kill won it on a sideout.

In Game 3, five more points by Nagy gave the Beavers a 13-8 lead and stretched it to 17-11, but libero Jenna Samsa’s four points cut it to 17-16. Wadsworth tied it three times before taking advantages of 22-20 and 23-21. Riverside got even on a missed serve for a sideout and an ace serve by West down the left side of the court. However, following a Grizzlies timeout, West misfired on a similar attempt, giving Wadsworth a sideout. Riverside then allowed a serve by Anina Sansonetti to fall just inside the back line for an ace and the game point.

“It would have been nice taking it in three,” Bayer said. “But you can’t expect it to be easy at regionals.”

Game 4 had the fewest service points, as the serve changed hands a total of 32 times. The first lead of more than one point came when Wadsworth took a 10-8 edge on a Julie Bassett kill, and pushed to a three-point lead three times, the last at 16-13.

The Beavers finally evened it at 17 on a West kill, and the margin didn’t reach more than one point either way until Nagy served for two following a Noewer kill for a sideout, making it 24-21.

Needing three consecutive points to stay in it, the Grizzlies got one. However, a Noewer tip finished the match.

“We knew going in that they were a great team.” Sepelak said. “So we knew that we just had to keep playing. Games 1 and 2, they seemed off a little. Three and 4, how they played is kind of what I expected.”

Samsa led the Grizzlies with nine points, followed by Rachel Jones with eight. Wadsworth served at 95.2 percent (79 of 83).

“They started too late,” Wadsworth coach Terri Mason said of her girls. “And when you’re in regionals, if you don’t come in and bring your A game – you don’t bring it from the very beginning—the other team that does is going to jump in. And they did.”

“(It’s) amazing,” Bayer said of the win. “The school’s been very supportive about it.”

“It is so awesome (to go to the regional finals),” Maczuzak said.

“Riverside just won semifinals (in the regionals)!” West said. “(But) we’re not done.”



Goldman is a freelance writer from South Euclid.