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Norwalk St. Paul, New Knoxville advance to a Saturday showdown November 10, 2006 By Jim Jicha Norwalk St. Paul advanced to the state championship last night with an exciting 22-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-27, 15-9 win over second ranked Frankfort Adena. The eighth rated Lady Flyers, who won it all in 2002, are making their third straight appearance at the Nutter. They also ousted Adena in 2004, that time in four games. The difference in last night’s match, according to Flyer coach Nancy Miller, was her team’s ability to close their blocks, which reduced the effectiveness of Warrior middle hitter Ashley Jordan, although the 5’10” sophomore still pounded out 21 kills. St. Paul outside Kate Schafer felt her team did a better job of passing, starting in game two, which gave setter Andrea Fritz more options. St. Paul’s biggest strength, according to Miller, is their team attack, and with Fritz having two and three options off nice passes, they mixed up their offense quite well, with outsides Christine Dow and Schafer knocking down 27 and 19 kills respectively, and middle Victoria Spaar and outside Ryan Centers combining for 19 more. Game one started back and forth with seven ties to an 8-8 score. Jordan scored three kills and senior middle Leah Hirsch two, but five Warrior miscues negated that. Adena nosed ahead on a kill by Jordan and her block of Dow, and after an ace from setter Haley Halcomb and a well placed hit by Braylee Pinson they led 16-12. Three more errors followed, however, and Fritz ended an intense volley in which she rejected two Adena hits by killing an overpass to tie the score again. Adena went on an 8-2 run and won, after a brief St. Paul rally, on a kill by Pinson. Fritz opened the next game with two perfectly placed dumps. She said afterwards that those opportunities “just opened up…they gave Adena a different look”. The Warriors must not have liked what they saw because they fell behind 4-0, and never got closer than two, as Dow, Spaar, Schafer and Centers took turns scoring. Schafer served up three aces in a seven point rally that put the Flyers up 23-12. Adena scored six of the next seven, but Fritz finally ended it with yet another dump after a diving dig by sophomore defender Whitney Roth averted an Adena kill. St. Paul roared out to a 10-4 lead in game three, and it’s good they did, because Adena almost pulled it out, taking an 18-17 lead on a kill down the left side by Tara Knauff. After three ties, St. Paul edged ahead 22-20, and the teams exchanged points until the end, which came on a blast by Spaar that was dug too close to the pole to save. Game four saw 16 ties, five to 5-5, and eight straight to 15-15, plus ten lead changes. Adena moved ahead by three only to see St. Play tie at 23 and take the lead on a cross court blast by Centers, a kill by Dow after freshman middle Amber Welfle rejected a spike from Hirsch, and tip by Dow. Hirsch and Halcomb teamed up on a block to keep Adena alive, and after a tie at 25, Hirsch sent the match into overtime with a crosscourt spike and a block of Dow that dropped on St. Paul’s back line. Game five saw eight more ties to get to 8-8, but parity abruptly stopped when Spaar sent a screamer down the right line and started a rally. With Fritz jump serving, Centers blocked a tip, and after an Adena time out, she scored on a tip of her own. Schafer and Spaar blocked Jordan, and two errors and another timeout later the Flyers were up 14-6. Spaar scored the winner on a spike from right side to the middle back. The match lasted 1:56. Dow and Schafer led St. Paul defensively with 25 digs each, while Adena libero Casi Coy had 24. Hirsch had three solo blocks for Adena to go with five assists, tops for both teams. Setters Fritz and Halcomb both had 17 digs to go with their respective 62 and 50 assists. Adena closes out the season at 25-3. ******************************************************************************** Third ranked New Knoxville fought off a determined Toledo Christian in a struggle that belied the fact that their opponent was unranked. It was New Knoxville’s second state appearance, and the first ever for Toledo Christian. The Rangers lost a semifinal in 1989 to powerhouse Newark Catholic. In the end it was the one-two punch of 6’0” hitters Nicole Wright and Alycia Niemeyer, who had 19 and 18 kills, respectively, that provided New Knoxville the edge. Wright also contributed 17 digs and Niemeyer chipped in with four solo and three assist blocks. Sophomore outside Morgan Reineke stepped her game up a notch with eight kills, many going down the lines which were open. Toledo Christian led much of game one which saw nine ties but only two lead changes. Michigan bound Maggie Busch scored their first two points, as the teams parried to three ties. Wright put the Rangers up 5-3, but two kills by 5’10” senior middle blocker Jasmine Vugrinac started a rally as Busch served up four points, including an ace, and senior outside Sara Schweer nailed a kill. The Rangers came back and there were several ties before the Eagles pulled on top for good at 15-13 on back-to-back crosscourt kills by Busch and Vugrinac. Toledo Christian opened it up to 19-14 on two aces by Busch, but New Knoxville roared back to within a point. Schweer followed a kill with an ace to make it 23-20 Eagles, and Ranger senior Meredith Fledderjohann kept the Rangers in it. Busch sent a terminating shot to right corner to make it 24-22, and the teams traded service errors. Toledo Christian charged ahead 8-4 in game two. But after a timeout in which New Knoxville coach Jenny Fledderjohann reminded her team they’d been down against Lehman Catholic in the regional final and come back, the Rangers caught fire, scoring eight straight as setter Haley Kruse served and Reineke and Fledderjohann spiked and blocked for points. They increased their lead to 23-15 and eventually won on kills by Reineke and Niemeyer. Game three was close for awhile. Two aces by Wright and a kill from Niemeyer put New Knoxville up 9-5, but Vugrinac helped narrow the lead to 10-8. However, the Rangers used an 8-1 run to blow the game open from 12-10. Game four was totally different as the teams traded leads five times and had ten ties. Upon taking a 13-10 two point lead, New Knoxville seemed to be pulling away when Reineke blocked twice to put them up 19-15. A point trade later, however, Schweer scored a kill and the Eagles rallied into the lead, as junior middle Shannon Longenecker blocked Niemeyer after Schweer had dug her previous spike, Busch terminated a spike that was dug into the crowd, Longenecker and setter Sarah Evens blocked Fledderjohann, and a Ranger hit sailed out. The Rangers went back on top 22-21, but Busch slammed three kills to give Toledo Christian leads of 23-22, and 24-23. However, Wright tied it with a kill at 24 and again at 25, after which the Eagles messed up a service return. Toledo Christian pulled out the stops on the ensuing volley, and Busch succeeded in digging Niemeyer, but the Ranger middle hitter had the last laugh when she blocked Vugrinac to end the match.
Coach Fledderjohann has been to a state final before as a player,
having played for the 1990 Fort Recovery team that won it all. But she said
experiencing it as a coach is different because “you can see the excitement and
joy on your players faces when they succeed”.
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