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State Volleyball Tournament Highlights November 13, 2005 By Jim Jicha In a case of reverse déjà vu, Cincinnati Seton rallied from an 0-2 deficit to defeat Toledo St. Ursula 20-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-19, 15-12 and claim their sixth state title, and first since 1996. St. Ursula won a state semifinal last year over Seton last year 16-25, 16-25, 39-37, 26-24, 15-6. Seton Coach Kerry Butkovich said her team had slept with that match for 365 days, and had practiced all season how to finish games. Their focus this year was to "get the job done". Tonight they finished the three games they needed, rallying from 8-12 and 18-19 in game three, pulling away in game four from a 17-17 tie and going on a 5-1 run in the tiebreaker after St. Ursula had rallied to take an 11-10 lead. The time of match was 1:53. Megan Griffin led Seton with 23 kills, and Emily Sullivan was second with 18. A major factor in their win was Gina Coffaro who, when asked afterward if this was her best, responded with "Uh, yeah". She then added that her attitude going into the match was "this is my last game as a Seton player, I want to win state so bad and I'm gonna' play my heart out". The 5'11" outside had a career high 17 kills. Griffin stopped St. Ursula's rally in game five with a tip after the Arrows rejected three spikes. Sullivan scored the Saints' final four points. Griffin often sets the pace for Seton, bur Sullivan said later, "in the fifth game I looked in Megan's eyes and I knew it was my turn to step up". Sullivan also gave credit to the parents who made sure all the players' pre-game rituals were taken care of. Butkovich was very pleased with the defense which produced 81 digs. Maggie Bonomini led with 16, libero Kelly Walter had 15, Libby Walter 14 and Chelsea Graham 11. Setter Chelsea Graman had 55 assists. Although he would have preferred a win, St. Ursula Coach John Buck was not unhappy with the outcome. He said, "you want to win, but these kids have given me everything they had. I'm so proud of them I'm not even disappointed. A coach can't ask for anything more". Discussing the loss, Buck said "Make no mistake, it was a good team that beat us". He added that Seton dug everything the Arrows hit, and pretty much took away the middle. By way of contrast, setter Emily Florian said losing in the state final "is the worst feeling in the world". Florian had 57 assists for St. Ursula along with two service aces. All five games were highly contested. The first four had from 11-13 ties and 4-8 lead changes, and the tiebreaker saw five ties and three lead changes. Tighe Westrick led the Arrows' defense with 28 digs, and 6'1" sophomore Alliya Drezwiecki led the offense with 24 kills. Ashley Heyman added 15 kills, Allison Florian had 11 kills with 10 digs. Defender Abby Walla had 14 digs. Senior middle Katelyn Schissler was deadly in game one with five kills while Drezwiecki led the Arrows' attack in game two. In game three Seton got rolling and took care of unfinished business. Roger Bacon repeated as expected for the Division II title, but Walsh Jesuit gave them some thing to think about. Bacon won 25-12, 24-26, 25-21, 25-16. Game one was no contest, but after that the Warriors got on a roll. Their serve receive was on which fueled their offense, and they began digging a lot of Bacon's spikes. Even though they still lost, the result was a lot of hard fought volleys and the Warriors even won a game, something nobody had done against the Spartans during the tournament. Katie Dull was awesome with 22 kills, but importantly Emily Vassil, Megan Rodriguez and Mandi Rowell teamed up for 23 more kills which helped keep Roger Bacon guessing. Roger Bacon had no trouble keeping the Warriors guessing, what with four hitters who can all bring heat. Heather Hausfeld terminated several shots en route to 20 kills, while Jaime Frey checked in with 17. Katie Westerfeld and Kelsey Rose had 12 and 11 respectively. Katie Veatch had 62 kills and, according to Warrior Megan Rodriguez, the Kent State bound setter "did a great job of setting where our middle blocker wasn't". That helps explain how the Spartans hit for .333 as a team. Rodriguez also said the Bacon serve receiving and digging were great. Roger Bacon seemed headed for a game two win with a 18-13 lead when the Warriors launched a comeback, getting two 2-1 mini-runs, then scoring four straight to go up 21-20. The Spartans tied it and went up 23-22 and 24-23. A net serve tied it again, and after a long Bacon spike, Megan Rodriguez blocked Frey for the game winning point. Walsh Jesuit led early in game four which was tied as late as 10-10. Roger Bacon gradually pulled ahead to 24-16, and a five point Walsh rally led to the final score. Game four was tied five times early, and Bacon then pulled away. Frey scored the game winning point. On Friday, Walsh outside Christan Green was asked how they felt about playing Roger Bacon. And what she said then summed up the Warriors performance. "We're very nervous but very confident. We have nothing to lose and we're going to go out there and leave everything on the floor. And, we're going to do it with class too". Turning to Division III, Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph won their second state title with a 25-16, 25-17, 25-21 win over Rockford Parkway. The Vikings last won in 2001. When asked which one was sweeter, Coach Mark Royer quoted former VASJ basketball coach Tedd Kwasniak who said "Comparing state championships is just like Christmas. How could you pick one to be more special than another?" The Vikings were led offensively by junior Margo Amigoni and senior Shannon Davis who each had 12 kills. And they held Parkway middle Rebekah Roehm to just 12 kills and a .089 attack percent. Roehm had 33 kills and a .435 attack percent against Westfall on Friday. Middles Hailey Martin and Hannah Groudle had five blocks total for Villa Angela-St. Joseph. Parkway led early in game one 9-7 and 10-9 after which the Vikings took the lead and slowly pulled away. Groudle blocked Roehm and had a kill down late in game one. VASJ used a 7-point rally to break from a 4-4 tie in game two. Donna Epstein served and Amigoni spiked three kills. Setter Colleen Lynch also scored a kill. Parkway led much of the way in game three. They still led 20-19 after Laura Art scored one of her 10 kills. But Groudle, Amigoni and Lynch scored the final six for the Vikings. Parkway had been to state previously in 1996 and 1997, winning both times. This year's run was improbable, given that their regular season record was 10-12 and they finished on a 7-match losing streak. But all their losses were to tough opponents. When when tournament time rolled around the players knew, according to Coach Todd Henkle, that "it was the time to get something going, and there was no time to wait". Senior outside Tiffany Steinbrunner said that winning sectionals gave them confidence and when they beat Coldwater in districts they knew they could make state. (Coldwater had beaten them in their league match). Meanwhile, the state tournament was an emotional rollercoaster for Villa Angela-St. Joseph. A week and a half before the finals, Coach Royer's father-in-law Joseph Dougherty passed away. And making state had special significance for Colleen Lynch, Shannon Davis and Margo Amigoni, because their sisters played for the 2001 team. Clare Davis scored the winning kill for the 2001 team. History repeated itself yesterday when Shannon Davis pounded down the winning point. In Division IV, Sidney Lehman Catholic beat Newark Catholic in a battle of 29-0 teams 25-14, 19-25, 25-14, 25-27, 15-10. Lehman out killed the Green Wave 72-52 but also committed nine more hitting errors. Roshelle Watercutter led Lehman with 26 kills while Jessica Butt and Lauren Gleason chipped in with 21 and 13, respectively. The Cavaliers racked up an amazing 104 digs, led by setter Emilee Seger with 20. Seger also had 55 assists. Jessica Slagle, Gleason, Butt, Watercutter and Nell Paulus were all in double figures. Leading in blocks were Slagle, Butt and Jessica Sargent. Sarah Clapper had 19 kills for Newark Catholic, while Shannon Wilson chipped in with 11. Clapper also led defensively with 16 kills, while Alicia Nichols and Andi Stoddard hade 13 and 11, respectively. Newark Catholic took a 1-0 first game lead, after which Lehman took charge for good, running out to 8-3 behind The serving of Butt and hitting and blocking by Watercutter and Slagle. Newark Catholic led all of game two although Lehman stayed in the game. Lehman led all of game three. Newark Catholic led game four from the start until 20-14. At that juncture, Gleason pounded a kill, and Seger came the line and swerved six points. Watercutter scored four straight on three kills and a block. The Green Wave scored two to go up 22-21 after which point trading occurred until Clapper blocked Watercutter for the go ahead at 26-25 and Lehman's next spike hit the pole. In game five the Cavaliers roared to a 5-0 lead and were never headed. Butt scored the last two points when she spiked a kill that went past the block into a hole, and then blocked Clapper.
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