Coyotes battle, fall short in district final

The Coyotes' drive for a berth in the state tournament came up one game short as they fell to the Brady Eagles in the Class D1-6 final at Garden County High School in Oshkosh Thursday night.

Though the Coyotes were stopped in three sets, they showed the same brand of tenacity that earned them a sub district title last week by knocking off two higher seeds. Despite the scrap they showed, Brady ended Potter-Dix's season by set scores of 25-17, 25-16 and 25-17.

Leading into the District final the Coyotes (11-14) were on a four-match winning streak. In the sub district tournament Potter-Dix outlasted Hemingford in a five-set nail biter. The subdistrict championship was won over Creek Valley in four sets.

Brady is a talented team with seven seniors on its roster and two players over six feet. The younger Coyotes feature no player over 5-9 and have but five seniors including two starters.

"We may have been a little nervous at the start knowing how much bigger they were," said senior setter Taylor Juelfs. "We couldn't pass very well at the beginning but once we got the serve we settled down and played better."

Despite their opening jitters there was no evidence of it from the service line. The Coyotes served for an impressive 94 percent errorless rate. Three players, Regyn Hicks (15 attempts), Dawson Sharman (9) and Morgan Wolff (9) did not commit an error from the serving stripe. Kinley Vowers made only one error in her nine trips to the line.

The Eagles jumped on Potter-Dix right from the start with leads of 4-0 and 5-3 before the Eagles senior Valerie Most took over the serve. The 5-3 lead ballooned into a 20-3 advantage which included three aces by Most. The string was finally broken when Brady sent an attempted kill shot into the net.

"We all wanted to go to state really bad and we were ready to fight to the end no matter what the score," said sophomore Regyn Hicks.

When Hicks took over the serve at 20-4 she remained there until the Coyotes scored five points. Alexus Rozelle finished the run with an ace block. With the aid of several Brady errors and three Rozelle scores, the Coyotes shaved 11 points from what was once a 17-point deficit, closing to 23-17 before finally conceding the set.

"It's been kind of our thing all season to hang in there and fight," said Wolff. "Tonight kind of reminds me of the season as a whole. It reminds me of the way we've always fought."

Potter-Dix fought the Eagles to a standstill for much of the early part of set two. The Coyotes managed to establish their largest lead of the match when they gained a three-point edge at 5-2. A Rozelle kill and a Wolff push shot earned the Coyotes their fourth and fifth points.

Brady quickly climbed out of its shallow hole and forged ties at six, seven, eight and nine. Once the Eagles poked their beaks ahead at 11-10 they never again trailed. A pair of Wolff scoring shots helped keep the Coyotes close midway through the set. On the other side, a strong service run by another Brady senior Sydney Widdick included two aces.

Her run gave Brady five points and a 19-13 lead. From there the Eagles out scored the Coyotes 6-3 to finish the game.

Set three was a near repeat of the first set with Brady jumping on Potter-Dix early. The Eagles talons clawed their way to leads of 7-0, 12-1 and 18-5. But as the Coyotes refused to go quietly in set one, so too did they dig their heels in for set three.

Rozelle began the reversal with a kill for 18-6 and shortly thereafter Vowers dropped two aces for 18-9.

Though Potter-Dix continued to ruffle the Eagles feathers, they soon stood on the doorstep of victory at 24-12. While many Brady fans moved to the bottom steps ready to greet their victorious Eagles, the Coyotes made them wait. Hicks took the serve back for the Coyotes with a kill and then took the serve. Potter-Dix scored five more points before the Eagles finally took the set and match.

"It wasn't our best game with our serve-receive game," said the Coyotes Head Coach Kristi Jung. "I told the girls how proud I was that they were able to come back from a 20-3 deficit. That speaks a lot about their character. They've shown that ability to keep playing unitl the end all season."

Hicks and Rozelle led the Coyotes in kills with nine and eight respectively. The hitters benefitted largely from the sets of Juelfs who led the team with 17 assists.

Defensively, Potter-Dix had five players with double-digit digs including Sharman (19), Hicks (17), Wolff (13), Vowers (13) and Rozelle (12). Rozelle, Vowers and HIcks each had two block aces.