Bald Eagle tops rival Bellefonte 3-0 in Volleyball action

By Kenny Varner Jr.
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: September 18, 2019

Bald Eagle Area 3, Bellefonte 0

BEL 7 11 12

BEA 25 25 25

By Kenny Varner

WINGATE – Early on, the young upstart Bellefonte girls volleyball team kept things close early on in all three of their matches against Bald Eagle Area.

However, the returning state champions sizzled to take convincing wins of 25-7, 25-11 and 25-12.

Leading the way for the Bald Eagles were Madison Eckley with 16 assists and Madison Rockey with 13 assists.

Lacee Barnhart tallied three aces while Lexi Skripek has seven digs and teammate Claire Andrews had a block.

Rounding things out for the Eagles were Bynne Bisel and Grace Hugar with six and five kills, respectively.

“Its good to get a win. We were trying to work on a couple things. We hit a little more free balls tonight. We had a couple combination plays but we are still not really clean but being able to use it in game action it will kind of give a chance to work on that,” Bald Eagle Area coach Larry Campbell said. “It gave us something to focus on and work on. We are trying to work harder and get better on the little things. I’ll tell the kids everyday we don’t get better, there is someone out there that is.”

One positive for the Red Raiders is the improvement they made from the first game until the last.

Tayla Miller has a strong presence in the middle, saving Bellefonte with clutch digs in critical moments.

“I think they(Bellefonte) did pretty well. They knew ahead of time they were going up against the state champs,” said Bellefonte coach Teri Kerr. “They knew they had to bring their A-game . They were a little disappointed with some of their errors. But I think they came back and played tough. I don’t think they hung their heads and they didn’t give up so that’s all I ask.”

In the first game, both teams went back-and-forth on seven consecutive side outs as the Eagles would go up 4-3.

Two service points by Elita Brown gave Bald Eagle a little breathing room.

Both teams exchanged side outs once again as the Eagles held a 7-4 advantage.

Again, the Eagles got two more consecutive service points this time from Barnhart, upping the lead to now a comfortable 9-4 advantage.

After another Bellefonte side out, the Eagles would add two more service points thanks to server Kristen Onder.

The two would exchange consecutive side outs, giving the ball to Madison Rockey.

She did not disappoint as her and her team muscled out eight consecutive points, putting the game almost on ice.

From there the Eagles allowed Bellefonte one more point as Hugar finished things off from the service line, 25-7.

Much like the first contest, the two battled early on as the Red Raiders would even keep the game to within a 6-4 contest early.

But again, the explosive offense of attack by Bald Eagle was too much as it went onto the 25-11 victory.

Bellefonte didn’t post its first service point until midway through the second. The service point was scored by Miller, who notched three consecutive points from beyond the service line.

In the third and final game, the Eagles found itself down early as Bellefonte led 2-0 but that would be it as Bald Eagle went onto the 25-12 victory.