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OCC caps banner year with first ever Challenge By Jim Jicha
Hilliard Darby won the first ever OCC Challenge Tuesday night, defeating Gahanna Lincoln 15-8, 15-7. The Challenge, hosted by Darby, pitted the top four teams from the OCC’s Ohio and Capital conferences against each other.
Darby (5-1) had won a three-way tiebreaker for first in the Capital Conference by virtue of having the best score differential. Undefeated Gahanna (6-0) was sole champion of the Ohio Conference.
The match featured the Player of the Year from both conferences, Darby’s Ryan Zelnis and Lincoln’s Danny Swingle.
Tuesday’s match was not as difficult for Darby as their nerve wracking win over Lincoln a week earlier. In that one the Panthers had to pull out all the stops to prevail 15-6, 14-16, 16-14.
When asked before Tuesday’s match what would make the difference, Darby Coach Shawn Parsell said it might come down to “motivation”. With the regular season completed and the State Tournament about to start, he was concerned his team might not be up.
Parsell’s concerns were quickly dispelled as the Panthers raced to a 9-0 in game one. Brian Welsh got a kill to break Gahanna’s initial serve. With sophomore Jason Martin serving, Darby scored four fast points on an infraction, another Welsh kill, a tip by John Harrison and a hit by the Lions that was wide.
After four service breaks Darby went up 6-0. Following six more sideouts the Panthers got to 8-0, scoring on a service ace by Zelnis and a kill by Jimmy Stern. Gahanna’s Landon Bentz placed a hit into a hole to temporarily stop the run. After seven more sideouts, Darby added the ninth point. Then a lift gave service to Gahanna.
Bentz scored the Lions’ first point on an ace. Two Darby errors made it 9-3. Upon regaining the serve, Darby scored three more on an ace by Brandon Mitchell, a tip by Martin and a Lions’ infraction.
With Darby up 14-5 Gahanna started a mini-rally. Danny Swingle buried a Darby overpass for a point and Bentz made a nice left handed cross-court tip into a hole by the net. But after an exchange of service breaks, Harrison scored the winning kill and game one was over.
In game two Darby again jumped out to a lead, this time 7-2. Bentz broke Darby’s serve on a spike that was blocked out of bounds. Gahanna junior AJ Leopard scored on a kill to make it 7-3. After Darby went up 8-3, another Leopard smash was blocked out of bounds, and Gahanna scored two quick points on Panther errors.
When Bentz and middle hitter Neil Malernee teamed up on a double block to cut the lead to 8-6, it looked like this match might be turning into the one last week. During this mini-rally, Zelnis did a great job of mixing up his sets, but Lincoln’s defense adjusted nicely to keep Darby’s spikes in play.
Unfortunately for Lincoln, a service error ended the rally and, following a series of miscues by the Lions, Darby was up 13-6. Welsh scored a kill for Darby to get to match point.
After the inevitable service break that almost always happens when a team gets to 14, Martin finished the match where he started, at the serving line. First he forced a sideout with a spike that was blocked out of bounds. Then he served an ace when Gahanna’s dig sailed over the net and out of bounds.
Dublin Scioto won the battle of second place teams, beating Worthington Kilbourne 15-11, 15-10. The win gave Scioto a 2-1 edge in their meetings this year. The Irish won 15-9, 15-6 at the Cardinal Classic, and the Wolves prevailed 15-7, 15-13 four weeks later.
After winning game one, Scioto raced to a 12-4 lead in game two. With Alex Kamenetsky serving and Matt Lookabaugh spiking kills, Kilbourne staged a furious rally to close to 12-10.
Scioto got a sideout and quickly got to match point scoring on a kill by Derrick Moomaw and a block by Kevin Douce. Alex McBride served for the final point.
Mount Vernon rallied twice and also staved off a rally to beat Hilliard Davidson in the match up of third place teams.
Led by the setting of senior Josh Jones and the hitting of juniors Michael Clifford and Lucas Gunka, Davidson rolled to a 15-3 first game win. The Wildcats raced to a 6-0 lead in game two.
Then Mount Vernon got untracked. With seniors Alex Shoemaker and Ryan Doup leading the hitting, the Yellow Jackets buzzed to a 13-7 lead. Junior setter Nick Osborn contributed some heads up plays.
But the Wildcats clawed back into the game before Mount Vernon finally put it away.
Davidson again roared to a lead, this time 9-4, in game three. And Mount Vernon again rallied to go up 13-10. After a Davidson point, Doup scored on a kill to make it 14-11. Davidson’s final point came on a block by Josh Youngblood.
The Yellow Jackets’ Jeremy Carpenter got the final point on a service ace. A ceiling beam got an assist on the play, crunching Davidson's dig straight into the floor.
Dublin Coffman was the lone Ohio Conference team to win a Challenge match as they beat Westerville South 15-5, 16-14. Coffman was led by the hitting of senior Chris Bussell and blocking of junior Brian Johnson.
Coffman won the first game rather handily. They had a good lead in the second, when South started a rally and eventually tied it at 14.
South was led by sophomore setter Jess Chiero, junior middle Josh Chiero and 6’6” senior Wil Snead.
The Challenge marked the end of the regular season. Teams from the Challenge go to four brackets, so four teams from the OCC could make the state quarterfinals.
Darby is the favorite in the Central 1 bracket. In Central 2, the three strongest teams are Kilbourne, Gahanna and Mount Vernon. Scioto may be the strongest team in Northwest 2, but they will face tough opponents all the way. Four OCC teams are in Northeast 2, but they will also face tough opponents, including Southwest power Elder.
However it shakes out this has been a banner year for the OCC, with great competitive matches, along with some surprise results. Based on the sophomores and juniors who played in the Challenge, next year is looking good too.
OCC Challenge 2003 Results
Fourth Place Teams Dublin Coffman def. Westerville South 15-5, 16-14 Third Place Teams Mt. Vernon def. Hilliard Davidson 5-15, 15-12, 15-12 Second Place Teams Dublin Scioto def. Worthington Kilbourne 15-11, 15-10 First Place Teams Hilliard Darby def. Gahanna 15-8, 15-7
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