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St. Ursula overpowers Ursuline

By Jim Jicha

Cincinnati St. Ursula, ranked #1 nationally by PrepVolleyball.com, made a strong statement Thursday night as they overpowered #7 ranked host Ursuline 15-7, 15-9. It was the first meeting of the season for these fierce rivals. 

The match was played before a packed house at Mt. Notre Dame, which has a capacity of 900-1,000. Tickets went on sale at 3:30 and within 15 minutes the match was sold out.

Last year the teams played three excruciatingly close matches. St. Ursula won the first two 6-15 15-6, 20-18 and 13-15, 15-12, 15-11, and with them the championship of the rugged Girls Greater Cincinnati League. Ursuline prevailed in the State Championship match 11-15, 15-8, 15-13, staving off a furious St. Ursula third game rally that started with the Lions up 14-6.

But Thursday night the Bulldogs were simply overpowering and they won convincingly in two. The score was consistent with season results to date. St. Ursula beat Toledo St. Ursula 15-9, 15-8 in the latter’s tournament in August. Last weekend, Toledo nipped Ursuline in a thrilling 15-13, 13-15, 15-13 marathon.

The match featured the same intense hitting, blocking and defense that we have grown accustomed to seeing whenever these teams face off against each other. Most of the scoring came on kills, ace serves and errors caused by powerful attacking. There were several long and intense volleys.

In each game St. Ursula was able to pull away on scoring runs that were slowed by lots of sideouts.

Ursuline started the scoring in game one when a St. Ursula spike nicked the pole. But the Bulldogs responded with six straight points.

Maggie Schmelzle got them going with a service ace. After four sideouts Mackenzie Angner blocked Ursuline’s Stephanie Blackburn for point two. Meaghan Mooney laid a kill down the line. Then Mooney made a great dig at the net and Beth Shelton blasted the first of several kills.  That made it 4-1.

A kill by Blackburn gave service to the Lions, but Angner slammed a kill down the line. After a service error, Shelton smashed a straight down kill. Mooney had another kill and Schmelzle followed with a smash to the corner, making it 6-1.

Ursuline’s Jeanna Staun got the serve back with a nice spike through a double block. The Lions got on the board again as Carli Reihman blocked an attempted dump by St. Ursula’s Stanford bound setter Bryn Kehoe. Erin Kanetzke hit a kill from backcourt to make it 6-3. But the rally was short lived.

Schmelzle hit a kill for sideout after Ursuline rejected two previous Bulldog missiles. Mooney had an an ace to make it 7-3. Reihman forced a sideout with a kill, but after three more exchanges, Kehoe hit a jump serve ace for an 8-3 lead. Reihman blasted a knock down kill, only to have Shelton smash one to the corner. Mooney’s kill made it 9-3.

After a kill by Blackburn, Ursuline setter Erin Webster scored on an ace. But St. Ursula came back with three more points, one on an ace by Erin Schroeder. Ursuline countered with two points on a jump serve ace by Blackburn, and a kill by Kanetzke.

Then came some errors. St. Ursula scored on a lift, but followed that with a service error. Ursuline scored on a Bulldog hitting error. They might have scored again when an errant Bulldog pass came their way. But just before the ball reached the plane of the net Kehoe made an incredible two handed dump. The teams then traded service errors leaving St. Ursula with the serve.

Kehoe scored point fourteen on a jump serve that barely cleared the net. After four sideouts Schroeder hit an ace that even less barely cleared the net.

Game two was similar except that Ursuline stayed closer. The Lions again drew first blood scoring on a jump serve ace by Blackburn and an errant Bulldog spike. But St. Ursula scored three points, getting one on a great save of a blocked spike and two more on a kill and block by Beth Gillming. Staun’s ace tied it at 3, but St. Ursula picked up three more points on two aces by Schroeder and a crushing spike by Shelton.

After Ursuline cut the lead to 6-5 thanks to Bulldog errors, Shelton and Kehoe went on a rampage. With Kehoe serving, Shelton scored on a block and again when an errant pass came her way. Kehoe hit an ace, Shelton slammed a spike that was blocked way over the net and out of bounds. Kehoe hit another ace. With the score 11-5 Ursuline was running out of time.  

However, the Lions kept at it, closing to 11-9 on another ace by Staun, two Bulldog mistakes and Blackburn’s booming block of Shelton. But that was the end of the line and of the Lions.

After several sideouts, a spike by Gillming knocked down a Lion defender. And after several nice defensive plays, an Ursuline hit was out putting St. Ursula on top 12-9. There were two more sideouts, after which St. Ursula put it away. Angner scored two kills to reach match point and then, in a befitting end to the match, Gillming nailed her first ace.

A blow by blow review of the scoring shows the full breadth of St. Ursula’s attack. Like many strong teams they have a dominating hitter in Shelton. But saying she hits harder than their other hitters is like saying 120 degrees is hotter than 110 degrees. If you go to Death Valley in July you’d better bring lots of water no matter what part of the park you visit.

St. Ursula comes at you relentlessly all the time. When you go up against them you'd better be prepared to dig a hard well placed spike on every play, no matter who is hitting or whether the spike is coming from the front row or the back row.

A lot of the credit for that goes to Kehoe. She puts up great sets, calls a smart game, turns bad passes into scoring opportunities, and does the best job of any setter I’ve seen in staying out of the net, which often seems to be only a fraction of an inch from her back while she’s in motion.

Just how strong is St. Ursula? Ask St. Henry, the state’s #1 ranked Division IV team. They were clobbered by the Bulldogs 15-4, 15-6 in Toledo St. Ursula’s tournament at the start of the season.

Now don’t let St. Henry’s small school designation diminish the significance of St. Ursula’s victory. The Redskins took third in that tournament, beating Elyria 7-15, 15-8, 15-4 in the opening round, and Mansfield Madison 4-15, 15-5, 15-3 in the match for third place.

Incidentally, St. Henry has a history of beating the top big schools. In 1993 they handed Piqua their only regular season loss 15-9, 15-13. Ursuline beat Piqua 15-8, 8-15, 15-9 in that year’s Division I State Championship match.

Still wonder how strong the Bulldogs are? Then consider the way St. Ursula vanquished Ursuline and Toledo St. Ursula. Recall that Ursuline beat Roger Bacon, who took Alter to three and beat Oak Hills (who just beat Mentor on Saturday). Toledo beat Northview who beat Magnificat. Northview also beat Bowling Green who beat both Perrysburg and Findlay.

Mt. Notre Dame did win a game from St. Ursula. However, the Bulldogs outscored them 30-4 in the other two games.

We’ll get a better idea about St. Ursula this coming Saturday when they travel to Louisville to face perennial power Assumption.

A huge test will come the last week of the season when they have to play Ursuline again, then travel to St. Charles East (Ill.) to compete in a tournament loaded with top teams from Illinois and other states.

One thing is for sure. If another team were to beat Cincinnati St. Ursula when they were playing like they did last Thursday, that would be one awesome match to see.