By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek ended the 2001 volleyball campaign when it couldn't produce an upset during the semifinal round of the South Section 3A Tournament played in Luverne Tuesday.
The fourth-seeded Patriots drew the tough task of taking on No. 1 seed Southwest Christian during the first semifinal-round tilt of the night.
H-BC played well at times, but it couldn't keep the E-Gals from posting a 3-0 win and ending the campaign with a 12-14 record.
H-BC sported 2-0 and 3-2 leads in Game 1 before SWC went on an 11-2 run to open a 13-5 advantage.
The Patriots closed the gap to four points (13-9) with a service point by Sarah Rozeboom and ace serves from Brittney Olson, Tonya Leenderts and LaDonna Sandstede, but the E-Gals scored the next two points to ice a 15-9 victory.
H-BC sported 1-0 and 2-1 leads in Game 2 only to watch SWC move in front 6-2 moments later. The difference still was at four points (8-4) when SWC went on an 8-0 run to clinch a 15-4 win.
Leenderts served a pair of points, Olson delivered an ace serve and another point and Erin Boeve provided an ace tip to give H-BC a 5-0 lead in the third game.
SWC put together a 14-1 run to seemingly take control of the match with a 14-6 advantage, but the Patriots scored the next five points (two ace serves and two service points by Boeve and one ace tip by Jody Rentschler) to make it a 14-11 game.
The E-Gals, however, regrouped to score the next point and prevail 15-11.
Boeve led the Patriots with 12 kills and five ace blocks along with going 11 of 11 at the service line. Leenderts, who was 16-17 serving, led H-BC with 10 digs.