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Moeller "refuses to lose" second time on same day, wins state title July 10, 2009 by Jim Jicha "’Refuse to lose’ and anything is possible”. That was Kevin Tenkman’s parting comment when he discussed Cincinnati Moeller’s thrilling come from behind 19-25, 25-23, 21-25, 26-24, 15-13 state final victory in the Dome at Walsh Jesuit High School over defending state champion Cincinnati Elder. The 6’4” senior outside hitter/middle blocker played a big role in making it happen. With the score knotted at twelve in the deciding game, Tenkman spiked a shot that was eventually dug into the pole for his twelfth kill, and then teamed with Honorable Mention All-State outside hitter Richie Lovell on a block kill. Elder countered with a smash by 6’6” junior outside C.J. Zureick. The Panthers then went to Second Team All-State 6’5” middle Jake Neiheisel, who already had a team-leading 19 kills to go with his team-leading eight blocks, for the tying point. In a classic irresistible force versus unmovable object scenario, Neiheisel’s spike was met by Tenkman’s outstretched arms, and the ball slammed straight down on Elder’s side of the net. A split second after, Moeller players and coaches were in a tangled mob on the court, and Coach Greg Ulland’s notes were strewn about the sidelines like giant pieces of confetti. It was the second time the Crusaders had refused to lose that day. Three hours before they pulled off an incredible 25-18, 23-25, 24-26, 27-25, 15-12 semifinal comeback over Lakewood St. Edward in which they lost leads of 19-13 and 23-20 in games two and three, respectively, and then rallyied from 7-0 and 21-16 to win game four and send the match into overtime. Ironically, Tenkman’s twin brother Chris, a 6’5” outside hitter, paced the game four comeback that saved them from extinction. Ulland said that match left him “emotionally exhausted”, but actually helped alleviate tension during the final. “I felt like our team now had nothing to lose, that we had seen our own death and lived to tell about it”, Ulland explained, adding “I was very at ease during the Elder match, and not that way during the St. Ed match”. The title match played out in similar fashion to the Crusaders’ 22-25, 25-19, 27-29, 26-24, 15-12 state final win over Elder in 2007. But this Moeller team was much different from the 2007 squad ran the table to 29-0 with a dominating lineup that won 26 matches in straight sets and finished 81-5 in games. “Moeller was the clear favorite to win the state and Elder was the underdog”, said Panther coach Sean Tierney of 2007. He continued “Moeller had beaten us three times that year and the matches weren't terribly close (actually, the first was in five)...while Moeller had beaten us three times this year, all were extremely close. So I think this match-up (looked to be) a little tighter and it was less of a surprise that it went to five games”. Tierney added that 2007 was Elder's first trip to the state finals since 2000, whereas this was their third straight trip. “So going into this final we had more experience and confidence”, he explained. One similarity, according to Tierney, was “two talented teams slugging out a match that was very intense, extremely close, and a whole lot of fun to be a part of. Oh, and Elder lost both contests, unfortunately”. While noted for dominating teams, Moeller this year was remarkable for finesse, attention to detail and grit. This was “possibly the toughest of all Moeller champions…not the most dominant, but probably the toughest”, according to Coach Ulland. His reasons: “They were 8-0 in deciding games (against Ohio schools). They beat Elder four times, all in deciding games. They won the Centerville Tournament on the morning after their prom. They won the Buckeye Classic after coming out of Friday night's pool play a number two seed”. “Great team effort and dedication” were deciding factors according to Kevin Tenkman who explained “We had the best coaching staff in the state and they prepared us both mentally and physically. Volleyball is a game of small details and our coaches showed us every little thing that can go wrong in a game and taught us the right form and position for every circumstance. This is why we were successful”. The 24-5 Crusaders garnered all 19 first place votes and were a unanimous number one pick in Final Boys State Volleyball Poll. Yet they finished second in the rugged Greater Cincinnati League to St. Xavier, losing both of their league contests with the Bombers and with those the GCL title. The Crusaders’ other losses came at the hands of Illinois powers in an early season invitational hosted by eventual Illinois state champion Warrensville Wheaton South. But as Ulland noted, the Crusaders were unbeatable in Ohio in tiebreakers, and they were 6-0 in five game matches. Moeller nipped Elder and St. Xavier in three-game tiebreakers at the Buckeye Classic. They squeaked past Elder three times in two-point tiebreakers, after prevailing in their first encounter 25-20, 25-12, 20-25, 17-25, 15-11. Ulland summed up his assessment with “This team was as confident, relentless and resilient under pressure as any team I have ever coached. 8-0 in deciding games. That is amazing!” And yet Ulland admitted that going into the final he “was very worried about our ability to beat Elder”. To prepare for the Panthers Ulland said “We made sure we knew who we wanted to set to in every rotation. We worked on covering, and on playing long, ugly points in practice for the entire post season. We had to cover and keep the ball in play to beat Elder. If points were scored quickly (e.g., blocks, aces, immediate sideout kills) then Elder was probably winning the match. As points got longer and the game became more about transition, then I thought we had a chance”. The way game one began, it seemed as if Elder might finally turn the tables on Moeller as they roared out to an 8-1 lead. But, foreshadowing the way the match would unfold, the Crusaders rallied ahead 20-19 before finally succumbing in the end. The Panthers took advantage of three Moeller miscues, after an opening salvo to the middle by Zureick, to go up 5-0. Moeller got on the board on a kill by 6’5” senior middle Phil Neuville, but Zureick countered with a tip. Senior outside Clancy Gay followed with a hammer down the left and Neiheisel and 6’6” senior right side Curt Graman teamed on a block to up the margin to 8-1. Neuville broke that run too, and Chris Tenkman and 6’5” middle blocker Mark Holtkamp double blocked on the right. Neiheisel countered those points with a kill and an ace. A spike off the block by Lovell made it 10-4, and Holtkamp and Gay exchanged a pair of kills. After a third kill by Holtkamp, Moeller closed to 12-10 as Elder touched the net and Neuville holed an overpass. Elder re-upped the ante to 16-12, but Moeller came right back on a kill by Chris Tenkman and another block kill from Holtkamp. The teams exchanged kills and net serves, until Moeller crept within 18-17 on an ace by Lovell. Panther 6’8” junior middle Matt Harpenau intervened with a cremation of junior Chad Thornton’s short set, but another serve went awry and Crusader First Team All-State senior outside Trevor Skove tied the game with a cross court blast to right back, one of his team leading 15 kills. Skove then saved a smash from Zureick and junior setter Landen Hunter block killed Moeller on top 20-19. That lead proved short lived when a Crusader muffed an attempted overpass demolishment and Harpenau scored instead on a quick set blast from the middle. Neiheisel followed with another quick set blast and added a tip to make it 22-20. Hunter got Moeller back on track with a kill, but Neiheisel countered with a knock down kill. Junior setter Steven Kent followed with an ace, and the Crusaders hit into the net to end the game. Game two saw 13 ties and five lead changes, and Moeller showed its mettle by rallying from 18-22 to tie the match. Zureick again opened the scoring, but Neuville gave Moeller an early lead with two well placed hits. Elder went back atop 5-2 as Moeller served long, Kent and Harpenau teamed up for one of many short set demolitions, and Gay and Harpenau each block killed. Scoring went back and forth until the Crusaders knotted the score at eight on a kill by Skove and an ace from 5’5” sophomore defensive specialist Connor White. Senior right side Bryan Scheck scored for Elder and the Panthers kept a step ahead to 13-11 on points by Zureick and Neiheisel. Then Lovell spiked a shot that was dug into both the ceiling and the stands, and Kevin Tenkman came up with two block kills. That put the Crusaders up 14-13 and they kept pace to 17-16 with all scoring on both sides via earned points. Momentum shifted again as Neiheisel produced two kills and a block, while Kent both served and short set and Gay kept the ball off Elder’s floor. With Moeller chipping in two errors, the Panthers moved ahead 21-17. Hunter broke the run with a cross court kill, but Zureick parried with a blast off the block, after Graman ran to the ladder to save an errant pass. The Panthers were, however, undone by a net serve and two hitting errors, and following a timeout, Skove smoked a tying ace into their back court. Neiheisel kept Elder in front, but Neuville ended a contested volley with a tip at the net and Kevin Tenkman put Moeller at game point with a blast from middle to left. Harpenau retied it, but Lovell countered with a shot that was dug to the top of the stands. And when a Panther missive sailed wide right, the match was even. Elder got on the board first again in game three as Neiheisel pounded a quick set from Kent to back left. Skove tied with a tip, and the teams traded points, errors and the lead until Graman put the Panthers back on top 5-4 with a block on Lovell. Graman scored again, this time on an overhead dig that Moeller misplayed. But Hunter replied with a kill, and the Crusaders forced a fifth tie at six on a block by Kevin Tenkman. The Panthers ran off three, helped by an ace from Gay, and maintained the edge to 12-9, after which Holtkamp and Lovell spiked back-to-back kills to pace Moeller to another tie. That would be their last, however, as Elder ran off six points. Graman smoked a kill down the right, and served the rally while defender Max Monk scored on a shot down the left, and Harpenau crunched another short set by Kent. Graman kept things going when he turned a knock down spike into a great pass. Moeller closed a bit to 19-15, but Elder went up 22-16 after Neiheisel terminated a short set from Thornton and followed with a block kill. Neiheisel blasted another short set from Kent, to move the Panthers to game point, and one Moeller point later, the duo combined for a game winning termination up the middle. Neiheisel started game four with, what else, a short set kill. But Moeller responded with two on a kill by Skove and a block from Chris Tenkman. Elder pushed back on top and stayed a pace ahead as the teams tied six times to 6-6. Skove put Moeller back on top with a cross court termination, and the Crusaders moved ahead 8-6. Scheck terminated a Thornton backset, but Kevin Tenkman pounded sets from Dane Owens and Hunter, to pace a run to 11-7. Scoring went back and forth, until the Crusaders upped their lead to 18-12 on a kill by Skove that followed a great dig by Lovell of a blast from Zureick. Elder rallied for three on a spike by Neiheisel and a cross court off-speed shot to right back from Zureick, but Kevin Tenkman and Skove advanced Moeller to 22-16. Elder rallied again, this time for four, as Gay holed a tip into the front middle and Graman scored on clutch net play in the middle. At that point Kevin Tenkman came up big with a terminating blast that was dug twice and into the pole. And when Lovell made it 24-20 on a hit to middle, Crusader fans breathed a littler easier. But not for long, as Gay responded with a kill off the block and, following a Crusader timeout, scored again with a block kill. A cross court shot by Moeller sailed wide right, and the cushion had deflated to 24-23. With a state title on the line, Holtkamp spiked what was undoubtedly the biggest kill of his career to force the deciding game. Holtkamp would end the day with ten kills on deadly .643 effectiveness. The tiebreaker began well for Elder, as Gay defused a Crusader bomb into a pass, and Kent short set Neiheisel for yet another termination. Skove tipped a set from Chris Tenkman for a brief tie, but Zureick ended a long volley with a blast to left middle. Neiheisel then blocked Lovell and, after a long Moeller hit, he spiked a liner off the top of the net that put Elder up 5-1. Kevin Tenkman stopped the run with a straight down kill, and Elder double hit. But Kent upped the lead to 6-3 with a dump after Moeller rejected a spike. Then Moeller ratcheted up the intensity as Holtkamp terminated a volley and then joined Hunter on a block that Elder handled four times. And when a spike by Lovell was dug into the crowd, the game was tied. Gay kept Elder in control with a knock down shot that was dug over and out, and he ended a long volley kept alive by libero Elliott Miller with a tip. That left Elder on top 8-6, but when the teams changed sides, the lead did as well. Lovell started things with a termination off the block and then retied the game with an ace to back right corner. Owens scored the go-ahead with a heads-up hit that came after multiple saves by White, now at libero. Harpenau tied it again at nine, and while the Crusaders stayed a step ahead, the teams would tie at ten, and again at eleven when Moeller finally hit long after preventing four Elder blasts from scoring. On the ensuing volley the Crusaders hit into the net, giving advantage to Elder but the Panthers returned the favor. With the score 12-12 the Crusaders were now where they needed to be for Kevin Tenkman to finish his career the way anyone who plays any sport dreams of ending it. And with defensive efforts from from White, who fielded two Panther blasts before Tenkman's spike, and Hunter whose saving dig to prolong the next volley for the double block, Moeller closed in for the kill at 14-12. The final volley ended quickly. The block “felt amazing!” Tenkman said afterward. “It was very relieving to know that everything we had worked the whole season for came down to that point and went our way”, Tenkman added, explaining that the match had become “an all out battle between the middle blockers, since Elder was concentrating on blocking our outside hitters. Jake (Neiheisel) was one of the best middles in the state of Ohio, so I had to step it up big for the team”. Ulland said later that this state title was "so special", and that Elder and St. Edward were the reasons why. He added “I can't believe how much fight our team had, and I understand that it took two teams that were equally as tough as ours to create such a memorable day… both teams are lead by two of the classiest, most sincere head coaches in Ohio sports (Sean Tierney and Neil Corrigan, respectively)". Ulland also cited two assistants, Mike Wauligman from Elder and Conor Martin of St. Edward) who he said "are among the best ever players to come from Ohio". “It was an honor to win the championship, but to do it against such great opposition made it moment that will forever light up my heart”, Ulland concluded. The tenacity and heart and displayed by Moeller, St. Edward and Elder will forever kindle the memory of everyone that saw them. ****************************************************************** Match Notes: 1) Moeller’s win capped not only an incredibly close and exciting state volleyball tournament, but a very unpredictable season. St. Xavier seemed at times to be the team to beat. The Bombers opened their season with a Cardinal Classic title, knocking off host and eventual Division II champion St. Charles in the process. A week later they were in the driver’s seat after wins over Elder and Moeller. St. Xavier beat the Crusaders again, 25-17, 25-22, 25-22 on May 9, to clinch the GCL trophy. But in between, Moeller nipped the Bombers in two-point tiebreakers to capture the Centerville Elite and Buckeye Classic titles. Elder also had mixed success against St. Xavier, whom they had defeated in last year’s final 25-23, 25-16, 29-27 to cap off their perfect 29-0 run. The Bombers avenged that loss with a 25-18, 25-19, 25-19 romp in Elder's season opener. But with lots of height and the blossoming of junior setters Steven Kent and Chad Thornton, the Panthers came on strong. Come mid-season, St. Xavier was lucky to escape with a 32-30, 26-24, 25-23 win in a Centerville Elite semifinal. Two weeks later the Panthers handed the Bombers their only GCL loss, and they proved that was no fluke with a 23-25, 25-16, 25-14, 25-22 win in the regional final. 2) The season began tenuously for top ranked Moeller. Coach Greg Ulland said that at the start he was most worried about GCL opponents LaSalle, St. Xavier and Elder. “I knew we had two very good lefts, two hard-nosed setters, three kids that were as athletic of a group as we ever had ever had at middle, and a great libero. I felt like this team had everything that a state championship needed”. The Crusaders won their opener in a 25-22, 29-31, 25-20, 23-25, 16-14 GCL nail biter over LaSalle, then fell in four to St. Xavier. After dropping three of five in the Warrensville Wheaton (Ill.) Invitational, Ulland told the players and parents, "We came to Chicago to play teams that would teach us tough lessons about ourselves”. He added “The only thing that was disappointing was that we didn't represent Ohio well…and because of that there were going to be 14 teams in Illinois that would be able to claim that they did "better" than the Ohio State Champions”. But even then, before they left Illinois, Ulland said he "still felt like we had the best personnel in Ohio, we just weren't showcasing it yet.” They showcased it three weeks later in the Centerville Elite against the then-ranked top eight D-I teams in Ohio, and again at the Buckeye Classic with victories over Centerville, Elder and St. Xavier. Those three finished the season ranked fourth, third and second, respectively. 3) Winning the Centerville Elite and Buckeye Classic was, according to Kevin Tenkman, “the turning point of the season”. He continued with "Prior to the season, my brother Chris and I had a conversation about how it would go. We were confident that we had the talent and depth to beat any team in the state, if we worked our tails off". Despite the slow start, Tenkman said that when they won the tournaments and "saw how well we competed against some of the top teams in Ohio, we gained confidence that we could win the state tournament”. But three days after beating St. Xavier 23-25, 25-19, 16-14 for the Buckeye Classic crown, the Crusaders fell to the Bombers 25-17, 25-22, 25-22. Tenkman said at that time “We all knew that we didn't play to the best of our abilities, but we knew that we had what it takes to beat them because we already beaten them in the finals of two tournaments when a lot more was on the line”. Actually, the GCL was title was on the line, and Tenkman conceded that “Everyone was upset because we didn't have our heads on straight”. But he said that after the match “Coach Ulland told us it was just a bump in the road and that we had what it took to beat any team in the state of Ohio”. 4) Elder Coach Sean Tierney explained the Panthers’ strategy against Moeller. “Going into the match we tried to exploit some of their weaknesses that we had observed in our previous matches. Most notably, we wanted to force the ball in the middle. If our passing was stable we were confident that Moeller would have a tough time keeping up with Neiheisel and Harpenau. In addition, we were lucky in that the three teams that we were facing on state weekend had an offense geared around their outsides. So we really worked on that in the week of practice leading up to the state tournament. But, Tierney added, “The big surprise for us in the final was that Moeller was able to produce some offense out of the middle that they hadn't produced in our earlier matches. Tierney said that as a coach, he was extremely pleased with how his team progressed throughout the year. “Going into the season I knew we had a lot of talent and potential…but it would take some time and a lot of effort to get them to grow and develop into the players they could be. It was very satisfying to see that the team worked hard throughout the season even after enduring some difficult early defeats. I think it is a great testimony to the players as to how focused and dedicated they were. Our number one goal for our team was to be playing our best volleyball come May, and our success in the post-season bears witness to that accomplishment”. Tierney also thought Moeller progressed very successfully throughout the season. He explained “I think we had the same type of teams this year. We both had hard working players who were willing to put forth the effort day in and day out. Unfortunately, a few more balls bounced Moeller's way throughout the season than ours”. 5) Coach Tierney mentioned another contrast between this state championship match and 2007. “It was different in the sense that I was sitting in the head coach's seat and not at the end of the bench". Tierney had received a heart transplant prior to the 2007 season, and he had to wear a surgical mask and avoid getting too close to people. A year later he coached the team to an undefeated state championship. 6) Coach Ulland did not specifically recall what he said during Moeller’s two timeouts in game five, but said he felt his players were “by that time in much better rhythm”. He said his coaches told “the right sides to help out in transition and encouraged the kids to keep playing long points”. But all in all he said “it was the actions of our players that were speaking the loudest during those timeouts. Our team did not need me to make them aware that we were 7-0 in deciding games. We knew it, and we believed that we were going to do it again”. 7) One unsung hero in the Crusaders' win was 5’5” sophomore defensive specialist Connor White, whose backcourt play was a key factor in the win. “You can't say enough about Connor” Ulland said. “He passed 31 balls against Elder with a 2.55 average. Without Connor we were predictable and unable to be aggressive. With Connor we were able to set our middles at will”. Ulland continued “Our middles hit .643, .500 and .429, combining for 28 kills on 47 attempts with only 4 errors. Connor and our middles were the biggest statistical difference makers of the match. Hats off to our setters for getting them the ball, too”. 8) For non-Elder fans who celebrated Jake Neiheisel’s graduation, the Panthers will return setters Steven Kent and Chad Thornton, along with 6’8” Matt Harpenau, 6’6” C.J. Zureick and 6’7” outside John Lucas. The duo of Kent and Harpenau gave Moeller fits. Coach Ulland explained that “Kent has an uncanny knack of setting Harpenau for maximum effect”. He said Moeller’s strategy was to “press low, and make Harp hit over us. If the set was high enough, then it could happen, and if not, then hopefully we could win the blocking battle. Ulland conceded that “Jake presented a much more difficult problem”. 9) Moeller, Elder final is one to remember (link to 2007 state final write-up)
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