Shelbyville volleyball, as well as the rest of the Pana/Shelby Invite field, ran in to a Little lllini juggernaut on Saturday, spoiling a higher finish for the Lady Rams, the Pana Panthers and more.

Cumberland (19-2) beat Shelbyville (19-7) in three games in pool play, 26-24, 14-25, 15-10 and went on to claim first place in the red pool and Shelby had to settle for second. Shelbyville had to play Pana, the winner of the white pool, in the #1, #2 inter-pool match and lost, 25-15, 20-25, 15-10.

“This was a day of ups and downs in this tournament,” said Ram coach Lisa Peifer. “At times, we played very well.

Against Cumberland we came out flat and had our chances to win the first game. We were down 21-24 and came back ti tie at 24-24. At that point, we had the momentum, but couldn’t pull it out.

Cumberland was a solid team that played good defense and came hard at you from the outside and quick from the middle. The second game was totally different as we really shook them up from the service line and went at them hard on offense. Taking that game 25-14 was a big boost for us. The third game was one that we had just too many unforced errors.”

Against Pana, the Rams but themselves in a deep hole in game 1 and could only make the score look better before losing. They got momentum in the second game and forced a third game, but were really playing catch up in the match overall.

“Losing the first game really put us under the gun,” Coach Peifer said. “Each time we turned the match around. But we really needed to be more focused when taking the floor for that first game. We won the second game, but we just ran out of gas and had tired legs. Our pool, which was stronger, took a lot out of us.

“Taylor Rhodes had a great match against Pana and we actually tried a few new things against them as far as the line-up went, that ended up being pretty successful. The biggest thing was trying to get a bigger block to match up with Pana’s big kids. I moved Brittany Peifer to the right side to give us a bigger block and Cassi Killam got her timing down and got a lot of hands on the big middle’’s balls.

“Unfortunately, we fell short when our games gave out. All the kids were very tired from having to battle every game and we just didn’t have enough left to pull it out. It was a good effort on everyone’s part, just not enough to be able to put us in the championship match.”

The Rams had to salvage third place in the tourney as they took on a team they have had no trouble beating this year, Neoga, in a longer match than necessary, 22-25, 25-15, 25-10.

“We didn’t really give them much credit to be able to compete with us,” Coach Peifer said. “We created a lot of our own errors by not working hard and playing our game. We lost the first game, the first time in our three meetings. We had to dig deep and focus to take the final two games and end on a positive note.”

The Rams play Pana in the first round of the regional. Last year, Pana upset the 30-5 OVC champion Shelbyville Rams.

“We see Pana one more time,” Coach Peifer said. “So, we know what to expect.”

Pana took that #1 v. #2 win over Shelby and went to the championship match against a Cumberland team that is better than expected. The Pirates stole the title from Pana, even after dropping the first game, 17-25, 25-17, 16-14.

Cumberland also took out a strong LSA team (18-7) in red pool play, 26-27, 25-18, 15-9. The Lady Rams also bested LSA in three games, 23-25,25-16, 15-8.