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BROADALBIN - It been an emotional week for the Johnstown volleyball team.

On Tuesday, the Lady Bills outlasted Cobleskill-Richmondville in a five-game match. Wednesday night, they received the unfortunate news that recent Johnstown graduate Joe Page III had died in an automobile accident.

Several of the Lady Bills honored Page by wearing T-shirts that said "RIP Joe Page" on them prior to Thursday's Section II Class B semifinal match against Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk at Broadalbin-Perth High School.

"We had some personal issues tonight because of the car accident," Johnstown coach Michele Robinson said. "It certainly made it tough for us to focus."

Second-seeded Ravena went on to win the match, sweeping the third-seeded Lady Bills by scores of 25-21, 25-22 and 25-22.

"It wasn't their best match," Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk coach Ron Racey said. "I know how hard it is when a classmate dies. We had the same situation happen to us a couple of years ago. It makes it really hard to concentrate."

It was the fourth straight year that Johnstown and Ravena had met in the postseason. Ravena topped the Lady Bills in the finals in 2006 and in the semifinals of last year's tournament. Johnstown won their meeting in the 2007 finals.

The latest edition of the teams' postseason rivalry got off to a slow start with both teams committing several errors in the early going.

The Indians got rolling behind a six-point service run by Ashley McMullen that turned a 5-5 tie into an 11-5 advantage.

Ravena maintained its lead throughout the remainder of the first game, though Johnstown got to within three points late thanks to three straight service points by Zara Hyde.

The run made it 22-19, but the Indians held on to win the first game, 25-21.

"We made a lot of mistakes and it cost us," Robinson said. "Both teams made their share of errors though."

In the second game, Ravena opened up a quick 4-1 lead before Hyde, Angela Holliday and Kassandra Buseck helped give Johnstown a eight of the next 11 points.

Hyde had three service points in the run, while Buseck had two. Holliday provided five of her team-high 10 kills as Johnstown took a 9-7 lead.

Johnstown pushed its lead to 12-7 after two service points by Brynn Hlozansky and a kill by Buseck, who finished with nine kills.

The Indians responded by winning the next five points to even the score at 12-12.

The game remained tight the rest of the way with Ravena taking a 2-0 advantage with a 25-22 win.

Johnstown got out of the gates quickly in the third game, getting three kills each from Buseck and Hlozansky as well as three straight service points from Kaylee Gillen, who also had seven kills and seven assists.

The early surge gave the Lady Bills an 11-6 lead. Ravena dug in and clawed its way back into the game after three straight service points from Kat Race and a kill and a block from Micaela Bullis that cut the Johnstown lead to 11-10.

The final game was tight throughout with 23 lead changes or ties. As they did in the first two games, the Indians were able to pull away late in the game, winning the final three points of the match to snap a 22-22 tie and earn 3-0 victory.

Britney Lintner led Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk with 22 assists, while Baleigh Morrow added 13 digs.

"[Britney Lintner] is a good setter. She shined for them tonight," Robinson said.

McMullen finished with 11 kills for the Indians.

Hlozansky had six blocks and three kills for the Lady Bills, while Shelby Lyons had 11 assists.

"Johnstown always has a nice team," Racey said. "They made some mistakes that helped us, and we helped them with our mistakes."

Johnstown finished the season with a 14-4 record.

"We had a pretty good year," Robinson said.

Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk moves on to the Class B championship game Wednesday against No. 1 seed Schalmont. The Sabres topped No. 5 seed Hudson Falls in Thursday's other semifinal by scores of 25-12, 21-25, 25-17 and 25-18.

Ravena (14-3 overall) defeated Schalmont in last year's final, but the Sabres won both of their meetings this season by scores of 3-1. Ravena has been part of six of the last seven Class B championship matches.

"We know how good Schalmont is," Racey said. "We beat them in last year's finals and I'm sure they'll be looking for revenge."