Volleyball ends season with pair of tourney setbacks

Krinstin Becht leads a large group of letterwinners returning for the 2012 campaign following a 16-15 season in 2011.

Bishop Ireton’s Cardinals ended the 2011 volleyball campaign with a 16-15 mark following a pair of losses in the WCAC semifinals and first round of the VISAA state playoffs respectfully.

The Cardinals jumped on top-ranked, and eventual conference champion, Good Counsel in the first game of the WCAC semifinals wining by a 25-21 count. The Falcons regrouped to down Ireton 25-16, 25-20, 25-16 to pull away for the 3-1 win.

The next week, the 7th seeded Ireton journeyed to Oakton in some of the area’s toughest traffic, and arrived just in time to play the first game like a harried commuter in dropping the first game to Flint Hill 25-9. They regrouped in the next game, but were edged 25-21 and 25-22 in the final set to fall to the second-seeded Huskies, who advanced to the state semifinals in Richmond.

“We didn’t serve as well as we normally do,” lamented head coach, Kathy Gutmann following the game. “I am disappointed for the girls that we didn’t play better all around in this state playoff match, we are a better team than the game scores suggest. That said, we had a very good year, one we can be very proud of.”

The season ends with a number of positives, the winning season, first trip to the conference semifinals in a number of years, strong cadre of returning players for the 2012 seas0n. The WCAC announced that senior Laura Hart was selected second team all conference, Emileigh Rettig was selected to the third team while junior Kristen Becht, sophomore Ashley Cabrera, and junior Sarah Hersey were honorably mentioned in the 2011 all league selections.