Tipp volleyball falls in regional semis

The term Instant Classic is the perfect description of what transpired on Thursday night at Lakota East High School.

It was the Division Three volleyball regional semifinals as the state’s top-ranked team from Ursuline Academy was pushed to the limit by the Tippecanoe Red Devils. Ursuline escaped with a five-set victory 25-18, 23-25, 25-18, 23-25, 15-12.

With the loss, Tipp ends the season 24-2 overall with both of their losses coming to teams who are currently in the regional finals, Ursuline and Versailles.

“Sometimes teams don’t give themselves the credit they think they deserve,” Tipp coach Howard Garcia said. “Sometimes, the fans don’t give the teams the credit they deserve. Today, these kids showed well and beyond they should get the credit they deserve.”

“Ursuline is a very good team from a very good conference, but it shows you if you put everything you have into it, it doesn’t matter who you are playing against, you have a chance to win.”

“They did not quit…they did not stop. We could have done some things a little better here and there, but at the end of the day we had Ursuline on the brink. I’m sad because the seniors are leaving us, they provided great things for the program, behaved with class and excellence and the returning players did the same thing.”

Ursuline took a 4-3 lead in set one and never looked back, holding onto the lead for the victory. Set two was much different. There were ten ties in the set with the Red Devils escaping with the win.

The Lions built a 15-11 lead in set three and fought off the Red Devils rallys to pull away and get the victory.

Tipp had built a 13-9 lead in the fourth set before Ursuline tied the game at 13. The Red Devils regained the lead and held off a Lions squad who tied the game at 23 before Tipp scored the final two.

In set five, it was literally point-for-point, with 11 ties and it wasn’t until Ursuline scored the final three points of the match to break open a 12-12 tie and get the win.

“They did exactly what we thought when we scouted them,” Garcia said. “The kids reacted to it and did very well. A little ball here or a little ball there would have made a difference, but that doesn’t matter, we played an excellent match and I am very proud of them.”