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Central Ohio guaranteed one spot in state finals as Bishop Hartley and Big Walnut advance November 2, 2006 By Jim Jicha Central Ohio was guaranteed an entrant into next week’s state finals last night when Bishop Hartley and Big Walnut both advanced at the Ontario Regional. The two will face off Saturday afternoon for a state berth. Hartley appeared confident throughout in taking down Northern Ohio League champ Tiffin Columbian 25-12, 25-20, 25-13. Big Walnut also won in three over Celina, 25-13, 25-21, 25-23, but struggled at times, and seemed to lose their composure for a bit in game three as Celina roared back from a 20-11 deficit. The two Central District schools also attended this regional last year. Hartley lost a semifinal to Ottawa-Glandorf. Big Walnut won the event by defeating Galion and Ottawa-Glandorf, before falling to state runner-up Walsh Jesuit in five at the Nutter Center. Having been there before was definitely a plus according to Hartley setter Michelle Mangia. “We were them last year” she said, adding “it feels good to get past the first round”. Never having seen Columbian, the Hawks didn’t know what to expect, but senior middle hitter Megan Krebs said that “this time we had a completely different attitude”. Coach Max Miller explained that what she meant was they had a “next ball attitude, taking things one touch at a time” in contrast to last year when they tried getting chunks of points all at once. It’s hard to say who had the biggest hand in Hartley’s win. Probably it was Mangia, who mixed things up with a variety of back sets, shoots and cross court sets and tallied 22 assists, while also scoring with some well placed dumps. Krebs led the attack with 14 kills, spread out over the three games. There was junior Teresa Trucco, who made numerous digs and saves while also spiking several kills, and libero Shannon Wells who dug what Trucco didn’t. Sophomore outside Giana D’Andrea, who has a really quick two-step approach, provided some well placed cross court and line smashes off the slide. And, junior Addie Zavatsky had a whopping eleven aces to go with a few kills. Three aces came after Krebs scored a kill on the first volley of the match. This, according to Miller, set the tone for the entire match. Setting the tone is important to this team which gets upset even when they lose the coin toss. According to Mangia, the first team to get to five sets the tone. Game one was all Hartley, as the Hawks set the tone at 5-0, and kept on rolling 9-1, 13-4, and 18-6. Krebs spiked a kill to make it 24-12, then served the final point and which she also scored from back court. Columbian’s 6’1” freshman middle Jill Stein spiked their first two kills, and Brittany Sheward and Brittany Pfeiffer also scored kills. Sarah Harmon got the Hawks rolling in game two with a kill down the left line, and after a service error, Krebs spiked a short set that put Zavatsky at the line, where she rattled off seven more points on three more aces, and a dump by Mangia. The Hawks again flew out to a big lead at 17-7, but Columbian rallied with a 6-1 run. After Hartley went up 23-14, the Tornadoes scored six points behind the hitting of University of Findlay bound setter/outside Megan Florence and sophomore middle Katie Magers. Sheward also served up an ace. Wells ended the threat with a back court kill off a great set from Mangia, after which D’Andrea ended the game with a block. Columbian grabbed their only lead in the match in game three, 2-0 behind a kill by Emma Hall and a tip by Sheward. But Krebs ended an intense volley with a short set spike, which put Zavatsky at the line, resulting in two more aces and another seven Hawk points. Columbian cut the lead to 11-8, but Hartley went on a 6-2 run. Hall provided a brief respite with another kill, but Krebs countered in kind, and Zavatsky served up two more aces to make it 21-11. Hartley scored match point on a Columbian error after a difficult to receive serve by Harmon. If Columbian coach Becky Rohrbach was disappointed in the result she didn’t show it. Instead, she focused on the senior leadership that brought her team together, a team picked for fourth in the NOL that finished first, a team that would not quit, a team that for the first time in Columbian history made the regionals. It was also a team that hooked a lot of folks in Tiffin on volleyball, including one man who drove the team bus to districts and saw the team play, then came to regionals on his own because he did not drive that bus. Next season is looking good too. Sheward will be the Tornadoes’ leader, with defender Chelsea Carley and middle hitters Stein and Magers also returning. Coming up are 5’11” setter/middle Lexi Rohrbach and 6’1” hitter Carli Bogard. Perhaps Columbian will be this year's Hartley next year. ********************************************************************* Going by scores, Big Walnut’s first two games may seem like Hartley’s, but the games were very different. Celina took a 2-0 game one lead on a kill by Liz Homan and an errant Eagle spike that followed a save by after Celina setter/middle par excellence Betsy Hone. The Golden Eagles moved ahead 8-4 on five big kills by 6’1” University of Pittsburgh bound outside hitter Hannah Swysgood. But Homan responded with a hit that was tipped out and added two aces. Hone drove a dump right at a defender, resulting in a lift and tying the score at 9-9. A couple of Celina errors led to disaster, however, as senior Eagle defender Hannah Seymour then served an ace, Erika Bills and setter Summer Hale teamed up on a block and junior outside Corinne Windle spiked a kill down the left line. That put Big Walnut up 14-9, and following a kill by Hone, the Eagles added ten more points, starting with another kill by Bills and ending on five straight aces by Windle. After a brief three point Celina rally, Swysggod smashed a cross court spike for the game winner. Game two was incredibly tight with 15 ties and Celina ahead more often than Big Walnut. Golden Eagle libero Tiffany Hines scored first on a dig that landed on the left line across the net. Freshman Cenzie Yoder got Celina’s first score, and with Hone scoring two dumps, two kills an ace and a well placed hit, the Bulldogs moved ahead 11-9. Big Walnut kept pace with Swysgood blocking Homan and scoring two kills and an ace. The Eagles tied at 18 on a kill by Bills, Hone added two kills for Celina, Hale nailed a dump and Homan blocked Swysgood. That left Celina up 21-19, when yet another disaster befell the Bulldogs after they were caught in the net. Swysgood promptly tied the score with a left side kill and after an ace by Bills, Swysgood scored three more from the left to end the game, one coming after Hale saved a tip at the net. Big Walnut jumped out in front 5-1, 11-5 and 20-11 in game three. Homan then scored a kill and that’s when the Eagles lost their composure, hitting one out, another in the net and two into the pole as Bulldog outside Kylie Dorsten blocked a tip, Audrey Harner dug for a point and Hone ended an intense volley by killing an overpass. That run, served by frosh Julie Klosterman, brought Celina to within one at 20-19. Two kills by Windle provided breathing room, but Dorsten spiked a kill on the rightside, and two Eagle errors tied it. A kill by Hone off a great set by Klosterman gave Celina the lead. That proved short lived as Bills tied it up and, after a Celina hit was stopped by the net, Hale came up with a save and Bills then blocked Hone for the match winner. Afterward Celina coach De De Stoner said her team did not attack well. When asked why, she responded “We talk about it, then we come out and don’t do it. I don’t know why we do what we do” (or in this case don’t do). Hone echoed her coach, saying that while she didn’t think it was due to Big Walnut, the Bulldogs did not have a pass and the few times they did, Homan got a kill. With all due respect to Hone, Big Walnut probably did impact Celina’s passing, as it was quite difficult trying to pass the stuff Swysgood was sending over. Big Walnut’s leaders were: Swysgood 18 kills, 9 digs, 2 aces; Windle 8 kills, 7 digs and 5 aces; Bills 6 kills and 5 blocks; Hale 4 aces, 6 digs and 29 assists; and, Hines 8 digs. ********************************************************************* Saturday’s match between the two Central powers should be a great final between two schools with similar records and schedule strengths. Hartley defeated Big Walnut 25-20, 25-22, 19-25, 25-16 on September 2. Both teams recently won close matches over Bishop Watterson.
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