Girls volleyball: Hillsdale upsets Black River in playoffs

SULLIVAN TWP. — The Black River volleyball team showed grit until the very end, but the Pirates saw their season end Tuesday night in a 25-10, 25-10, 25-19 loss to Hillsdale in a Division VI, Northeast 1 first-round game.The 14th-seeded Pirates (17-8) couldn't keep the No. 16 Falcons (12-11) from going on a run in each of the first two sets, as Hillsdale scored 12 straight points after leading 10-6 in the first and then scored the final 15 points of the second after the teams were tied 10-10.The Falcons also had 17 aces in the first two sets to keep the Pirates off-balance."They had four really strong hitters that would go to one corner, and they come back to the other," Black River coach Courtney Dieter said. "They picked our defensive apart. They had some really strong servers, too, that just got some really nice runs going and were really consistent tonight for their side."That just really kept us out of our system, and we just really weren't able to get our offense going like we normally do."Black River players never lost their positive attitudes despite the score, as they were constantly trying to keep each other in the match."Mentally, we were just trying to get everybody to group together and just kind of keep our hype up, even though the game wasn't going our way," senior Morgan Kubitz said. "I think towards the end, we really were able to do that."The Pirates did get their hype up in the final set, going on a 6-1 run after they trailed 15-9, but Hillsdale answered with a 4-0 run to take back control."I think we were all just more focused (in the third set)," said Kubitz, who finished with 13 assists to bring her total to 710 for the season. "We were less nervous, not thinking this could potentially be our last game, and we just kind of brought our energy back up from how we started."The way her team fought until the final point didn't come as a surprise to Dieter."That's kind of been our grit and our testament all season," she said. "That's kind of the team they have been, and it's why we had such a great year."The Pirates will now look to build upon their 15 wins next season. The grit and attitude they showed with their season slipping away is a teaching point for their players who will be returning."We really work on grit," said junior Sydney Czarny, who had six kills to give her a team-high 223 for the season. "When we're down, we try and fix ourselves."Contact Ryan Isley at sports@medina-gazette.com.