Scotus Central Catholic tried to make the best of a tough situation and bounced back from a semifinal loss to Kearney Catholic for a third-place finish on Saturday at the Columbus Classic.
The Shamrocks, looking to boost their wildcard total for the postseason, were placed in a pool in which one team dropped out. That left SCC with just three chances to score wins on Saturday at Lakeview. The Shamrocks earned two with a 25-11, 25-14 win over Centennial in pool play and a 25-22, 25-18 victory against Class B Beatrice in the third-place match. In between, Scotus dropped a tough 25-22, 29-27 loss to No. 4 Kearney Catholic.
The 'Rocks had the Stars at set point three times in the second set but couldn't quite finish it off. The weekend's results make Scotus 16-6 heading into the Centennial Conference Tournament.
"It's still a step forward. We had more opportunities to win both of those sets than we've had, and I really thought we played well," coach Janet Tooley said. "There at the end (of the first set), we could have beat them by three and they could have beat us by three if you play that same match out again."
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Scotus had no trouble defeating a young Centennial squad that has just one senior in the rotation.
In the last match, Scotus made a four-point run to take a 21-17 lead and seize control. Mallory Dreesen had two kills and Ashley Hoffman served an ace during that stretch. The Shamrocks jumped out to an 11-4 lead in the second set, saw that advantage trimmed to two then finished it ahead 21-18 on a serving error, Dreesen kill and back-to-back kills by Berlin Kluever.
"I think we've made a step in defense since Tuesday, we definitely served better, and all of our attackers hit positive," Tooley said. "Now it's just a matter of having some more set plays when we get into tight situations to have a few more options."
Nate Tenopir is the sports editor of The Columbus Telegram. Reach him via email at sports@columbustelegram.com.