Monday, November 9, 2009 7:48 AM CST
Cumberland inching toward volleyball stardom
By RICK DAWSON, Staff Writer
rdawson@jg-tc.com
ALBION — A few more matches like this and Cumberland’s volleyball team might begin attracting even broader attention.
Small schools like Mount Pulaski, Stew-Stras, Shelbyville and Kansas – the last area team to pull off back-to-back state tournament appearances — can boast of having an intimate connection with Redbird Arena.
Cumberland can too after its 19-25, 25-5, 25-18 super-sectional defeat of Bunker Hill Saturday. The Lady Pirates are state-bound for the second straight year, with a bit more experience than they had one year ago.
And a little more brass.
“We always come in thinking that we were going to pretty much kick their butt,” senior Macy Shupe said. “And then we saw their middle hit.”
Cumberland’s players confessed to knowing little about Brooklyn Hlafka, Bunker Hill’s 6-foot-1 middle, before Saturday’s match at Edwards County. Hlafka had 30 kills in her two sectional outings and looked like she might approach that number in one match after ripping eight in the first game alone.
The Minutemaids built a 13-5 lead, withstood a Cumberland rally that tied it at 18-all then scored the last five points of the first game.
“It’s interesting because I’m as big as she is, but they see me every day so they don’t pay attention to it,” Cumberland coach Monica McNeil said. “When she walked in they were like, ‘Holy cow.’
“Our girls have played Charleston and they have an outstanding player (Emily Rose). I told them that we got hands up on her. We blocked her a couple times. There’s no difference. But we didn’t know the difference until we got here. This girl’s left-handed.”
Hlafka, though, was too much of a one-girl show for the Minutemaids, and when she landed awkwardly on her wrist in the second game it didn’t help. Cumberland scored the first five points, and when Hlafka rotated to the back row, Sadie Sparks turned in a memorable serving exhibition. During a 14-point run, she fired seven aces. Four of the other points came on kills by Shupe, who blasted away from the outside.
“(Hlafka) dove for a ball, just planted herself down and that was it,” Bunker Hill coach Marissa Law said. “She came up and it was just a huge knot. Now it’s black and blue, but she wouldn’t come out.
“That second game obviously was a fluke because they were all worried about her. They’re best friends so they were worried about her and they couldn’t get their heads back in the game — and I can’t blame them.”
Bunker Hill got the early edge in Game 3, though, when Hlafka struck her 15th and final kill to make it 12-7. Three straight errors closed the gap to two, and the Lady Pirates gained control after Hlafka was blocked twice at the net. An 8-0 run gave them an 18-13 lead and freshman Kassidy Hunt’s tip offered them eight match points at 24-16.
It was a fitting turnaround, considering that Bunker Hill went on a dinking frenzy to establish the lead in the third game.
“They do a lot of tipping and we weren’t ready for it, because we were ready for them to just set the ball up,” said Brittany Whitaker, who had eight kills, four fewer than Shupe. “The middle can hit really well. We were back on our heels, not covering, and that hurt us a lot.
“We had no idea what this team was going to be like. We knew we had to adjust and I think we did pretty well coming back into the second game.”
Hlafka had four blocks and Casey Holland three kills and three blocks for Bunker Hill (31-7). Whitaker had 18 assists, Sparks seven kills and Kennedy Gabel six kills for Cumberland (29-2), which is approaching its second 30-win season in school history.
The Lady Pirates’ first crack at that mark takes place on Friday when they face defending state champion Eastland, a 25-9, 25-11 winner over Newark, in the Class 1A semifinals at Illinois State University. Mount Pulaski and Payson Seymour advanced to the other semifinal.
Contact Rick Dawson at rdawson@jg-tc.com or 238-6855.
CUMBERLAND
Macy Shupe 12 kills, 10 digs; Brittany Whitaker 8 kills, 18 assists, 9 digs, 2 aces, 1 block; Kennedy Gabel 6 kills, 8 digs, 1 block; Madison Sparling 2 kills, 16 assists, 8 digs; Sadie Sparks 7 kills, 4 digs, 8 aces, 2 blocks; Kassidy Hunt 3 kills, 1 dig; Alison Kimble 8 digs
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