By MATT GOLDBERG

Herald-Whig Sports Writer

BEARDSTOWN, Ill. -- It seemed the West Hancock volleyball team was on its way to completing the comeback.

After losing to Springfield Lutheran 25-8 in the first game of Tuesday's Class 2A Beardstown Sectional semifinal, the Titans bounced back to win the second game 25-20 and jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the third game.

Then the Titans' serve-receive and passing problems resurfaced.

The Crusaders recorded seven aces and outscored the Titans 23-5 to end the third game -- and West Hancock's season -- with a 25-11 victory.

"I'm not as worried about us passing off the spike -- we seem to do better," said West Hancock coach Eileen Shoup, whose team finishes with a 23-12 record. "It's the serve-receive that has been a potential problem for us."

Springfield Lutheran (32-5) scored five straight points to take the lead and gave itself some separation with a seven-point run for a 15-7 lead.

"It's again with the hesitation," said West Hancock setter Caitlin Shoup, who had 13 assists. "We trust each other but kind of are afraid to let them have it. But again, we're afraid to take it ourselves. We take it at the last second."

The opening game only lasted 17 minutes, as the Crusaders quickly took advantage of the Titans' serve-receive problems in Game 1 with six aces.

"We generally play well enough to stay in the ball game," Eileen Shoup said. "So to get beaten as badly as we did in Game 1, even in Game 3, we don't do that very often."

The Titans' first-game struggles vanished in the second game, with West Hancock senior Marley Hall taking control of the match and recording 10 of her match-high 16 kills in the second game.

In the final game, Hall had two kills on West Hancock's first five points scored -- helping the Titans jump out to a 5-2 lead. After that, she only had one kill, which came with Springfield Lutheran leading 24-11.

Springfield Lutheran coach Katie Gilman said the key to winning the third game was keeping the ball away from the 6-foot-1 Hall.

"We were getting them out of system (in the first and third games)," Gilman said.

"... We weren't doing that in Game 2. We were like, 'Hey, here have free balls and just set it up every time.'"

-- mgoldberg@whig.com/ 221-3367