State High School Volleyball : West Leads Francis Parker Over Brentwood

Francis Parker’s volleyball team is made up of a good mix of experienced seniors and inexperienced sophomores.

Saturday in the Division III state volleyball semifinals, it was an inexperienced sophomore who led Parker to a 15-11, 15-12, 12-15, 15-13 victory over Brentwood at Francis Parker.

“Heidi West carried us tonight,” Parker Coach John Cook said. “Every time we needed a sideout or a kill she came through for us.”

West is a 6-foot 1-inch sophomore who had never played volleyball before this season. Saturday night she had 19 kills and 11 blocks against a taller Brentwood team.

Tracy Hughes, the experienced senior, had 32 kills and 7 blocks but showed fatigue as the match went into the fourth game.

“She’s been fighting the flu,” Cook said. “She definitely was tired in the fourth game.”

Cook said Hughes was set almost 80 times.

“I don’t care if it’s high school or college, that’s a lot of sets,” Cook said.

In each game, it looked as if Parker (30-2) would run away and hide, but Brentwood (19-3), led by Loren Montgomery (14 kills) and Kelly Sather (23 kills), always came back.

In the first game, Parker jumped ahead, 8-3, but Brentwood tied at 8-8 and 11-11 before losing. Again, in the second game, Parker led, 8-1, but Brentwood, behind the serving of Kristen Jacobsmeyer, scored seven straight points to tie. Brentwood took a 12-10 lead but West responded with two crushing kills to get Parker back on track.

“Our defense was a little better than theirs,” Cook said. “We stopped their hitters a little better than they stopped ours. We dug the ball and got points out of it, whereas they had a lot of wasted digs.

“We’re not used to seeing that big a block. I thought Heidi made all the big plays for us.”

In the fourth game, Parker raced to a 14-6 lead but Brentwood rallied to make it 14-13 before Hughes got a kill for sideout and than served an ace for the victory.