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Cincinnati St. Ursula, Mt. Notre Dame advance in regional play

By Jim Jicha 

Cincinnati St. Ursula and Mt. Notre Dame took no prisoners in Wednesday night’s regional action at Vandalia-Butler High School. The Bulldogs shut down Chaminade-Julienne 15-3, 15-2, while Mt. Notre Dame throttled Seton 15-4, 15-5.

St. Ursula has been hammering strong opponents all year and they were on their game Wednesday. The Bulldogs used a powerful balanced hitting attack to continually pound away at C-J. Their tenacious defense kept balls in play that would have been Eagle scores against other teams.

Some might say that Chaminade did not have a good passing night, but it’s difficult to pass when you have hitters like Beth Shelton, Beth Gillming, Maggie Schmelzle, Meaghan Mooney and MacKenzie Angner blasting well placed spikes your way on volley after volley.

And it’s hard to get the ball down against a defense that blocks or at least gets a hand on most spikes and digs whatever gets past the block, where hands pop out of everywhere to keep the ball from dropping, and even when their dig goes awry, which isn't very often, someone reacts to keep the play alive.

And when you play St. Ursula you always know that on the very next play a terminating spike may be headed your way.

Chaminade got some great shots, but most of the time St. Ursula found ways to thwart them.

Bryn Kehoe had her typical stellar night. Backsets, shortsets, cross court sets, everything low and fast. The way she runs the offense, average hitters could excel.

But “average” is not in a St. Ursula hitter’s dictionary.

Shelton specializes in cratering the ball and knocking down defenders. Gillming is best at placing hard smashes into open spaces. Schmelzle, at 6’1” the tallest player on the team, does some of both.

The Bulldogs put all of this on display at Vandalia.

The first game started tentatively with both teams committing errors. St. Ursula lit the scoreboard first after three sideouts on a blast by Gillming off a slide. But Stephanie Ross blocked a dump attempt by Kehoe and when the Bulldogs next spike sailed out the game was tied.

Gillming hit a cross court kill off another slide, and the Eagles got the sphere tangled in the net after a nice jump serve by Kehoe. But the next serve was out and St. Ursula, after fielding a spike by Ross, saw their volley get snared by the net, making it 2-2.

After a knock down kill by Shelton, the Bulldogs scored two on a long Eagle hit and a kill by Mooney.

The Eagle’s forced two more sideouts and cut the lead to 4-3 after four hits by St. Ursula. But when Shelton’s cross court spike gave service back to the Bulldogs, the nation’s number one ranked team stepped onto the floor.

Kehoe stuffed an Eagle spike, then smoked an overpass. The Bulldogs next hit was out, but Gillming got two kills, one after a snazzy Kehoe backset. Kehoe’s ace made it 8-3.

Ross nailed a kill for C-J but Gillming responded in kind. After Chaminade’s Ali Hess blocked a St. Ursula hitter, Shelton lofted a tip over the block for the Bulldog’s tenth point.

St. Ursula’s next hit was out, but Angner got the serve back with a kill. Kehoe then slammed a perfect kill from backcourt that went deep to the right line and it was 11-3.

There were a couple of sideouts and St. Ursula scored two points on errant Eagle hits. Schmelzle recorded the final two points on a solo block and an assist with Gillming.

The Bulldogs came out smoking in game two with Shelton serving up the first five points. Schmelzle scored first on a block and followed with a kill. Kehoe and Mooney recorded kills.

After a service error, Shelton tried a line drive spike from back court but Chaminade’s Sara Dorman blocked it, and the Eagle’s were on the board. Mooney’s spike returned the serve to St. Ursula and she scored on an ace. Schmelzle made it 7-1 on an Eagle overpass that came after Gillming rejected a C-J spike.

This was followed by five sideouts, three on long serves. C-J scored on an errant hit, but Gillming’s cross court spike ended any hopes of a rally.

Mooney nailed another kill, but Ross’ spike gave the Eagles another serve. However, St. Ursula executed a nice slide with Kehoe back setting to Shelton. Erin Schroeder stepped to the line and served seven points to end it.

Schmelzle blocked an overpass to make it 10-1. Schroeder hit two aces, one in the corner to make it 12-1 and one just inside the line to bring it to match point. Schmelzle smashed the finale right down the middle.

Schmelzle led St. Ursula in blocking with five, including two solo. Kehoe had 19 assists. Schmelzle had 6 digs, Gillming and Mooney 5 and Schroeder 4. The hitting was balanced, a team effort all the way. 

Mt. Notre Dame’s win over Seton was no surprise, but the ease with which they handled the Saints was. Seton had taken Mt. Notre Dame to three in their first meeting, and they beat the Cougars when Danielle Meyer was out with an injury.

Meyer’s presence last night had a big effect on the result, as she repeatedly blistered Seton’s defense with spikes.

MND served first, but Caitlin Carey forced two sideouts for Seton with a kill and tip. The Saints scored on a two hit call and again on Megan Griffin’s kill.

Then Meyer made her presence known getting a kill on a slide right and another that put MND on the board. After four sideouts that ended on a dump by MND setter Mindy Rees, freshman Lindsy Upton blocked a tip to tie it. And after four more sideouts, Kari Schneider served MND to a 5-2 lead, with Malorie Wessel contributing a kill spike that Seton blocked out of bounds.

The Saints rallied to 5-4 when Beth Robbins’ serve landed just in bounds and Carey followed with a kill.

Meyer end the mini rally with a left side cross court kill. A Seton hit was out and Meyer followed up with a kill down the middle. Seton’s Adrienne Bleh helped bring about a sideout by making a great dig on Meyer, but Meyer responded with a straight down kill to get the serve right back. Rees and Wessel scored on kills and a tip by Meyer landed in a hole. Victoria Randolph hit a short serve that dropped into a hole just over the net and MND was up 11-4. 

Seton scored one more point on a lift but Upton’s hit over the block found a hole to stop any rally ideas.

Meyer made it 12-5, and had two more kills to force sideouts as the Cougars moved to game point on Seton hitting errors. Meyer’s final point came on a nicely executed slide to the right, when her spike was blocked way over the net and out of bounds.

Seton served to start game two, but Meyer got a kill and MND raced to a 5-0 lead. Randolph started the scoring with a spike that caused a lift. Meyer scored on a block and, after an errant Seton hit, boomed another block to the hardwood. Claire Miller served an ace.

Carey’s spike stopped the run for Seton, but Meyer drilled a smash that was blocked out of play. After three more sideouts the Saints rallied. MND was called for being in the net. Katie Hendrian scored a kill after a nice pass by Kelly Hofmeyer. Hadrian scored again on a block, and  a tip by Griffin made it 5-4. The teams traded points on an errant Seton hit and another Griffin kill.

But the Cougars got service back when a Saints hit went awry and, with Schneider serving, they rolled to the brink of victory.

Seton was called for lifting, and Scheider served an ace. Two Seton hits were out, the second after Meyer and Tricia Klone double blocked two Saints’ spikes. Randolph tipped an overpass into a hole. The score was now 11-5

Then Meyer took over.

She scored two kills on spikes that were blocked way out of play. An errant Seton hit made it 14-5. Griffin gave the Saints a brief respite with a kill. But Meyer blocked for the sideout, then buried a kill for match point.

The Cougars were on their way to a third match with St. Ursula.

While Meyer’s hitting was the obvious factor in MND’s win, it happened because of Rees' consistent setting. And Malorie Wessel transitioned some difficult digs into nice passes.

The Bulldogs and Cougars will meet for the regional title on Saturday. These teams have met twice this year, with St. Ursula winning both times, 15-2, 8-15, 15-2 and 15-10, 15-8. The Bulldogs have had a couple of close matches, but MND is the only team to take them to three.

On an ominous note, at least for St. Ursula, arch rival Cincinnati Ursuline crushed Bishop Watterson, the Central District’s strongest team, in the Hilliard Regional 15-1, 15-2.

The Eagles had tuned up for the State Tournament with a big tri-match win over Westerville South, Big Walnut and then undefeated Centerburg on the last Saturday of the regular season. But they were no match for the Lions, who held McAuley to three points in the district final a week ago. Ursuline will face Dublin Coffman in a regional final.

If St. Ursula and Ursuline keep winning fans could be treated to another phenomenal state final, especially if Ursuline keeps their intensity up.

The past two years have seen Ursuline and St. Ursula play each other in the State Championship in three game matches that fans still talk about. The Bulldogs won in 2001 and the Lions took it last year.

In other regionals, Austintown Fitch and Mentor advanced to a rematch of last year when  Mentor knocked Fitch out in a regional semifinal 15-12, 15-9.

Fitch prevailed over Solon 17-15, 15-7 behind the hitting of Maggie Case. The Falcons, who lost four matches early in the season when Case was sidelined with shin splints, have now won 20 in a row. Fitch’s last two losses were to Toledo St. Ursula and Cincinnati Seton in Magnificat’s Fall Classic.

Mentor beat Massillon Perry 15-7, 15-5 as Danielle DeMarco recorded 12 service points and Megan Skouby had 12 kills and four blocks.

At Norwalk, Magnificat came from behind to beat Amherst Steele 11-15, 15-10, 15-4. Steele ends the season with only two losses, both to the Blue Streaks, who also beat them 15-10, 15-7 in early September.

Toledo St. Ursula beat Perrysburg 15-9, 15-0 to advance to Saturday’s final, behind the hitting of Sarah Florian with 13 kills and blocking of Kelsey Hills.