Harvest Christian had a decided height advantage over St. Francis de Sales going into Tuesday’s Class 1A Westminster Christian Sectionals semifinal.
The Lions took full advantage of it.
Harvest Christian spread the ball all over its front line, and the result was a dominant 25-6, 25-5 win. That sends the Lions into Thursday’s 6 p.m. championship match against Newark. They will be in search of their fourth sectional title in as many seasons as Harvest Christian has had varsity athletics.
“We have a great front row,” Harvest Christian coach Kim Floyd said. “We were able to capitalize on that. We had good height on them.”
The Lions (23-14) had a few errors at the start of the first game that kept things close, but they scored 14 straight points to break the game open.
The front line of 5-8 junior Ellie Burzlaff, 6-1 sophomore Mikayla Robinson and 5-9 freshman Amanda Cassidy got involved as well. They combined for eight kills in that run, which pushed the lead to 18-3.
“We’re trying to get Mikayla involved more and our outsides,” Burzlaff said. “We ran some different plays. We’re just trying to switch it up.”
Another crippling run in the second game closed out St. Francis de Sales (12-10).
A 4-4 game was 21-4 when the run was over. The serving of senior Shayna Manusos was at the heart of that run. She served eight aces in that span to augment the domination going on up front. In addition to the big three, other players like freshman Hannah Griffith got in on the action with blocks and kills.
Burzlaff led the way with eight kills, followed by six from Cassidy and five from Robinson.
“We’re pretty deep this year, so that’s a nice advantage,” Floyd said. “Everybody got to play tonight, didn’t miss a beat and came in and did well.”
Next up for the Lions is Newark, who beat North Shore Country Day in the other semifinal, 25-11, 25-11. Earlier this season, in its home opener, Harvest Christian beat Newark in a thrilling three-set match that saw the third game go to 27-25 to determine the winner.
“They’re a great program,” Floyd said. “It will be a good game. We’re looking forward to playing them.”