Exxeter-Milligan, Giltner Advance to Crossroads Championship
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YORK – With four of the top seven teams in Class D-2 playing in the Crossroads Conference Tournament semifinals on Monday in York, it’s easy to see why people were calling it a mini state tournament.
Exeter-Milligan, ranked #6, started the evening with a 25-23, 25-15, 25-15 win over #3 Hampton and that was followed by a victory by #4 Giltner over #7 Meridian 26-24, 25-21, 25-20. That sets up a championship final between Exeter-Milligan and defending Class D-2 champion Giltner – which also won the 2013 Crossroads title.
In the opening match, Exeter-Milligan got out to a quick 13-7 lead in the first set, but saw Hampton go on a 10-1 run to take a 17-14. An ace block, however, by the Timberwolves’ Amber Pribyl – a Midland University recruit – put Exeter-Milligan back up for good at 21-20 in the opening set.
Exeter-Milligan never trailed in the second set, but that wasn’t the case in the third set as the Hawks took a 12-8 lead on a kill by Haley Schulze. The Timberwolves responded, though, with a 7-0 run to go up 16-12 and never trailed again. Madison Horne had two ace serves in the run for Exeter-Milligan and Hailey Luzum added two kills. Luzon finished with a match-high nine kills for the Timberwolves while Pribyl had nine blocks. Hampton was led by Madison VanHousen’s eight kills.
In the final match, Giltner and Meridian went back-and-forth the entire first set, with the score being tied at 18, 19, 20, 22, 23 and 24 before the Hornets got a kill and ace serve from Chainey Tompkins to end the first set. Although the final scores were close in the second and third sets as well, Giltner led a vast majority of the time en route to the victory.
Tompkins finished the night with 19 kills for the Hornets while Baily Craig and Kelby Lyon each had 13. Blair Hofstetter led Meridian with 14 kills.