Hinsdale/Saco Wildfire Extinguished At District

The Wildfire played hard and fought hard for every point in the district tournament, but they just weren’t in sync and had peaked a month early.

It was a joy to watch these young ladies go through the season with their great athleticism and zeal. Coach Kathy Siroky brought them a long way this season. She didn’t have a real answer for the way it ended, as none of the fans did either. It just is what it is. The best team does not always win.

A good start in the early season gave the Hinsdale/Saco Wildfire a good push into October, and in this writer’s opinion they were the best team in the conference on Oct. 1.

Only the volleyball gods know what happened in the following four weeks.

It was devastating for the four seniors to not make it on to Divisionals, and it was equally bad for the Wildfire fans, but I guess there’s no crying over spilled tears.

It boded unwell immediately when the Wildfire had to ride a yellow bus – “OMG, not a yellow bus!” – because Saco’s better bus was sitting at Zerbe’s, broken.

They should have been thankful they weren’t in school when I was a kid. If the stagecoach broke, we had to travel out of town in a horse drawn freight wagon.

Bainville was the first test for the Wildfire and it looked like all’s well that ends well but as ol’ Shakespeare once said … it doesn’t.

The Wildfire jumped out to an early lead and totally smashed the hapless Bulldogs, 25 to 9. They played, maybe, their best game of the season with Whitney making a few really good doinks that had the Bulldog-ettes in confusion, Chadaya making thundering KWAs, Bethany and Courtney blocking most every ball that tried to cross the net, Hannah and Payton acing, Shyla setting and Delaney digging. It was beautiful to watch.

The second game was more of the same, kinda, with the Wildfire letting the Bulldogs score 15 points.

In game three Payton Chopper (L) had a good turn at the plate serving up seven straight, which included a couple aces and gave the Wildfire a good lead, but the Bulldogs fought back and took the lead 15-13. That was about the time the wheels came off the Wildfire’s wagon. Bainville won 25-17.

The fourth game was a burner with both teams trying their very best to stay in the lead. When it got down to the end it was 24-23 Wildfire. Then on an FTC (failure to communicate) by the Hinsdale/Saco squad, the Bulldogs tied the game.

The Wildfire had the advantage, 25-24, when Bainville hit one out of bounds but H/S gave the pernt right back to B’ville on a service error. Tied 25-25.

Bainville closed out the game with two straight pernts, sending the match into a fifth game.

With the score 4-3 favoring Bainville, Payton served up two aces that put the Wildfire in the lead 5-4. But an UFE (Unforced Error) on the Wildfire tied the score at 5 and that was when disaster struck.

The Wildfire’s Big Mo left the building.

The Bulldogs went on a rampage that the Wildfire couldn’t contain, scoring 10 points to Hinsdale/Saco’s 1 and winning 15-6, which gave the Wildfire an early exit into the loser bracket.

Scobey was their next foe and it didn’t go much better with Scobey winning three straight. Loser out.

This being my last feature on Wildfire volleyball, I bid you all a fond Ah Reservoir and say ...

That’s it for now folks. Thanks for listening