Injury deflates Westminster Christian

Even the winning coach didn't like to see the way the Class 1A Westminster Christian regional was decided.

An injury to the Warriors' Jessica Benson early in the third game Saturday night changed everything.

Westminster had just forced Hinckley-Big Rock to a deciding game and trailed 7-4 when Benson came down awkwardly after going up for a kill attempt. The senior didn't return and the Warriors didn't recover.

The Royals would cruise through Game 3 to win their second consecutive regional title, 25-20, 14-25, 25-10.

"When the injury happens to your go-to player it makes a huge difference," Warriors coach Guy Lum said. "You don't want that type of thing to happen, but sometimes it does."

Benson had 7 kills, 6 digs, 2 aces and a block before being injured. Her ace off the net on game point gave the Warriors (24-12) the Game 2 win.

Hinckley-Big Rock went up 4-0 to start the third game. Westminster, which had never won 20 matches in a season before, got within 1, 5-4, after a Hannah Graves kill. Three points later, Benson was injured, had to be carried to the bench and then to the training room.

The Warriors trailed 11-7 after a Royals net violation. But Hinckley-Big Rock scored the next 8 points to take control.

"It's unfortunate that (Westminster) had the girl down," Royals coach Don Watson said. "We played just good enough to win."

Graves finished with 4 kills, 17 assists and 3 digs for the Warriors. Cate Gibson had 5 kills, 4 aces and 7 digs. Cara Tyrrell added 6 kills and 7 digs.

"We had a game plan coming into this and we executed it well," Lum said. "It took a while in the first game to get it going. In the second game they caught on fire."