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State tourney update November 7, 2007 By Jim Jicha With the State Volleyball Tournament set to kick off tomorrow, here is a final look at the teams that made it and how they got through their regionals. Division I Division I will see familiar faces as the Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame Cougars and Cincinnati Mother of Mercy Bobcats try to encore last year’s title match. The Cougars won that one 25-16, 25-22, 14-25, 25-15, and the two teams split five game matches this season. Magnificat and Mentor will try to rain on the River City parade. Mt. Notre Dame survived a regional final scare on Saturday from league rival Cincinnati Ursuline 25-16, 20-25, 22-25, 25-18, 15-13. Ursuline had upset the Cougars 25-22, 25-21, 17-25, 25-19 in the last match of the regular season, so the close contest was no surprise. Cougar Coach Donna Mechley said her team prepared for Saturday by concentrating on what they needed to improve upon. Passing lapses, which led to inaccurate hitting in Wednesday’s semifinal with St. Ursula, was a biggie. The Cougars also looked at what they needed to do to stop the Lions from scoring, but in the end Mechley said “I don’t believe we ever did stop them from scoring, but we did pick up on our side of the court”. The result was that Ursuline took MND to the wire despite a huge game by MND middle hitter Rachael Adams, who spiked 32 kills on 50 sets. She scored eight points in game five! With Ursuline up two games to one, Mechley told her team “we can win if we play our game and execute on our side of the court”. She explained afterward, “We have hitters coming from all sides of the net and that is hard to defend. We just refocused and went out and played better.” And won game four. Game five was close all the way. With Ursuline up 13-11, Mechley reminded the Cougars to serve aggressively and keep Rachael Adams on one balls in the middle. They responded with four straight points. Also leading the Cougars were Jen Meyer with 12 kills, Rachel Rohlfs 56 assists, and libero Abbie Rees 39 digs and 3 aces. Jackie Schnicke served aggressively and Laura Eling did a great job subbing for Marissa Otto. Mother of Mercy, meanwhile, advanced by fending off a fast start from the Bishop Watterson Eagles to win a match-up between Ohio’s top two ranked big schools 17-25, 25-15, 25-10, 25-19. It was the only regional final that did not go five games. Mercy charged out 11-4 to start but Watterson, led by 6’1” middle hitter Cassie Farrell along with outside Claire Lee, used a 27-8 rampage to win game one and carry a 6-2 lead into the second frame. Mercy outside hitter Missy Harpenau said the Bobcats “came out a little shaky” and called Watterson’s big run “kind of nerve wracking”. But she said “We didn’t let it get to us” adding “In the second game we just gave it everything…we knew we had to keep pushing”. Things settled down and the Bobcats won the match 17-25, 25-15, 25-10, 25-19. Aggressive serving by Mercy earned them several aces. Mercy was led by Harpenau, junior outside Stephanie Vorherr and the superb setting of Michelle James. Magnificat prevailed over Amherst Steele in a five game marathon 18-25, 25-14, 25-23, 17-25, 15-8, thus ending the Comets’ season the way it began (Amherst lost a 16-14 tiebreaker in that one). Each game was about momentum, according to Blue Streaks’ Assistant Coach Mike Kennedy. Amherst went up 18-4 in game one. Magnificat staged a rally that was too little too late, but they carried that momentum into game two. Game three proved to be critical and momentum shifted back and forth. Magnificat went up 11-6 on strong serving by Kristen Kidd and Kristen DuBroy. But Amherst regrouped during a key time out and roared to a 20-14 lead. The Blue Streaks closed to 22-18, and after Amherst scored, they sided out on a kill by sophomore Michelle Chakirelis. DuBroy rifled over a few serves and Chakirelis hit a sneaky high roll shot to the back right corner to tie it at 23. The Blue Streaks rallied off the next two points to go up 2-1. Serve receive problems plagued Magnificat in game four and Amherst forced a tiebreaker. In the huddle following the coin toss, Blue Streaks Coach Mike Cannon spoke about heart and fundamentals being the cornerstone to winning big matches. Kennedy reminded the team that “although this is very important to all of us, it is still just a game. Nothing bad can happen to you if you lose this match, but great things will happen if you win." The tiebreaker was even up to 6-6, after which Magnificat’s back row took over, making dig after dig along with great on target passes to forge a 7 point rally served by DuBroy. An Amherst sideout and kill made it 13-8, but a kill by Chakirelis and a high shot to the zone by Kidd ended the match, sending the Blue Streaks to their first Final Four since 1999. Chakirelis paced Magnificat’s offense with 15 kills. Senior middle blocker Michelle Matia added 13 and Kidd chipped in with 12, and DuBroy made all that possible with 51 assists. Defensively, Chakirelis and Matia combined for five solo blocks and 12 block assists. Mentor avenged an earlier loss to Solon with a gritty 25-21, 25-9, 20-25, 10-25, 16-14 tiebreaker win. Solon, which ousted Mentor a year ago and had their whole team back, had beaten Mentor at the Cardinals’ Northeast Ohio Invitational Tournament at the end of September. Solon led in game five 14-13, but 6’3” junior Alexa Rand, who paced the Cardinals’ scoring with 12 kills and 13 blocks, scored a block to tie it. She then spiked a kill, and blocked Comet hitting star and University of Tennessee recruit Kayla Jeter for match point. Jenna Golic led the defense with 32 digs and setter Lauren Bogatay had 40 assists. Division II For the first time in recent memory there are no GGCL teams in this final four. And none of last season’s semifinalists are back. In fact, this final four grouping has made a combined four appearances, and none of them have been to state in this century. The GGCL presence began in 1993 when Cincinnati St. Ursula won the first of six straight state championships. After they moved up to D-I, Roger Bacon took their place, and a couple years later Archbishop Alter joined the fray. Second ranked Tipp City Tippecanoe (28-0), which has been building under the direction of Coach Pat Carus, took care of the GGCL teams this time, disposing of Alter in the district final, and then nipping Archbishop McNicholas 25-14, 21-25, 21-25, 25-21, 15-10 in the regional semifinal. The Red Devils beat Bellbrook 25-21, 25-15, 25-16 in the final. This will be Tippecanoe’s second state appearance, their other coming in 1992, the year before St. Ursula began their run. The Red Devils finished runner-up in '92, losing to powerful Akron Archbishop Hoban 9-15, 15-7, 15-10. Calling it “a great defensive battle”, Carus said “the McNicholas match was, simply put, a top ten in my book - by that I mean, it goes into the top ten of matches I've been involved in during my 30 plus years playing, refereeing and coaching”. Carus’ career includes being the down official in the NCAA Men's final the first time a non-West coast team won the title (Penn State over UCLA in 1994), winning a US Open title in 1989 and a Wisconsin State boys championship in 1977 when they were 76-1, and, last year’s heart wrenching district loss to Roger Bacon in which the Red Devils fell 21-19 in the tiebreaker. With Tippecanoe down in games 2-1, Carus told the players “it was time to find another level of performance” and asked them “to find a way to tilt the court in our favor”. Tippecanoe recorded 112 digs against McNicholas. The Red Devils beat Bellbrook in the final 25-21, 25-15, 25-16. The Golden Eagles hung with Tippecanoe in game one, until digs and relentless rallies by Tippecanoe the last five points turned momentum their way. Leading the way against Bellbrook were: Hilary Andrews 5 kills and 12 digs; Gina Porto 6 kills, 6 block kills and 3 aces; Cassie Berning 12 kills, 2 block kills and 12 digs; Abby Dowd 8 kills 1 block kill and 9 digs. Tippecanoe’s opponent on Friday will be 22-5 Bishop Hartley, which makes its first appearance despite having graduated five starters to the college ranks. Coach Max Miller has put together another great team, and on Saturday the 6th ranked Hawks knocked off number three Bexley 25-23, 26-24, 25-18. Both teams played extremely well during the first two games of the match. Hartley was able to separate themselves in game three with solid defense and aggressive serving. Coach Shaun Servick, in his second year at Bexley, had his players prepared and believing they would win the match. After going 10-15 his first year, Coach Servick was 25-2 this season. This could be a great match as Hartley’s five losses were to ranked opponents: Bishop Watterson twice, Toledo St. Ursula, Pickerington North and Roger Bacon. On October 9, the Hawks lost an 18-16 tiebreaker to Watterson. Hartley’s team attack against Bexley was balanced, as evidenced by the stats: outside hitters Addie Zavatsky and Teresa Trucco with 13 and 12 kills, respectively; setters Nicole Howard and Lindsay Gaughan with 14 and 13 assists; middle blocker Lindsey Coffield 5 blocks; Abby Weisenberger 15 digs; and middle blocker Giana D'Andrea 7 kills. Toledo Central Catholic makes its third appearance at state and first since 1995. The Irish were fortunate to get past Mansfield Madison 25-17, 18-25, 25-14, 16-25, 15-11 on what was not their best day. With game five knotted at 11, senior rightside Amanda Arnold sparked the win with two kills as Chrissy Ankenbrandt served an ace and junior outside Julia Haupricht scored match point on a block. Senior Ashley Frazier led Central with 17 kills. Central played much better in the semifinal where they downed Celina 25-19, 25-18, 25-8. Salem qualified for its second final four appearance, and first since 1999, with a hard fought 25-23, 20-25, 25-23, 25-17 win over a young and talented Parma Padua Franciscan. Sophomore outside Amy Scullion led the Quakers with 28 kills, three blocks and a 51% kill rate. She also served an ace. Setter Taylor Toothman had 45 assists and two aces. Senior Katie Scullion chipped in with four aces, nine kills, three blocks and 14 digs. Middle hitter Sarah Brobeck had three aces, five kills, and a block, and Allie Ward came up big in game four with three blocks and three kills. But the comebacks and tense moments occurred in the semifinal with Walsh Jesuit when Salem won game four and then came back from 13-10, 14-12 and 15-14 to defeat the Warriors 25-15, 16-25, 22-25, 25-13, 17-15. In the tiebreaker, Katie Scullion had a kill for point 15, Sarah Brobeck blocked for 16, and Katie had a block for game-match point. Division III This division has a new look and, for the first time ever, a GGCL contestant. With three state titles, two runner-ups and six overall appearances, St. Bernard Roger Bacon is well known at the Nutter Center, but is new to Division III. Their move into the division came at an unfortunate time for Versailles, whom they nipped in three 25-23, 25-23, 25-22 on Saturday. Versailles had beaten Anna impressively in the semifinal and, had Roger Bacon still been D-II, would have no doubt faced Central power Heath in the final. Roger Bacon toppled Heath in the semifinal 25-18, 25-23, 25-16. Coach Caryl Schawe credited passing and a total team effort for their win over Versailles. Leading the Spartans were Chelsea Hoffmann with 17 kills and Alli Wilson with 18, Katelyn Schawe with 43 assists, and Vicki Pumpple with 27 digs. Roger Bacon will square off Thursday evening against Lima Central Catholic, which knocked out top ranked Huron on Saturday. With their two cannons, Sara Sage and Susie Isphording, back from last year’s final four squad, Huron seemed poised to return, but Central had other ideas and surprised the Tigers 27-25, 25-19, 10-25, 25-21. The Central coaching staff worked hard to prepare the team for the barrage they would face, according to Assistant Coach Kevin Kitchen. He said they “tried to simulate Isphording and Sage and took plenty of hard swings” in practice, adding “Defensively we were fairly well prepared…our block got lots of touches and forced them to hit into the strength of our defense”. Trailing 11-3 in the first game the T-birds slowly fought their way back and got to game point. Following two more game points and time outs by each team, they realized they really needed to finish Huron off and keep their momentum. After Huron won the third game, the T-birds talked about resetting and regaining their focus, according to Assistant Coach Kevin Kitchen. He said “We had to get the thought of winning and losing out of our mind and re-focus on fundamentals”. Leading Central Catholic were outside hitter JoJo Krieg with 18 kills and three aces, setter Alexis Diglio with 41 assists and Chelsea Crow with 24 digs. Gilmour Academy won its first ever regional championship, and a berth in the State tournament against Albany Alexander, with a 25-17, 25-20, 25-13 win over Independence. The Lancers “displayed a true team effort in the victory” according to Coach Jeff Grzybowski. Defensively, senior libero Eileen Lane and junior outside hitter Raysa Sylvester combined for 42 digs. At the net the Lancers were led by sophomore and junior middle hitters, Mary Kramer and Brittany Shirk who combined for 25 kills and 12 total blocks. As a team, the Lancers committed only 9 hitting errors on 119 chances and junior Kelsey Rodgers dished out 28 assists without an error. Grzybowski said one key to Academy’s win was neutralizing Independence's tough serving by receiving 44 of 48 successfully. Academy emphasized returning top-spin serves, including jump serves, in practice. Lane was 16 for 16 and Sylvester 13 for 14. Another key Grzybowski said was that “we made several incredible scramble plays that kept volleys going and allowed us to get more chances at winning points, and those plays had to be disheartening to Independence”. Gilmour Academy was fortunate to make the final, however, as they had to pull out all the stops to get past West Salem Northwestern last Wednesday 25-22, 22-25, 24-26, 25-19, 15-12. That brings us to Albany Alexander. The Spartans have been here once before, last season, when they were ousted by Anna in the semifinal. Alexander played close to perfect on Saturday in beating Frankfort Adena 25-13, 25-18, 25-18. That result was remarkable given the difficulty they had last Wednesday with Westfall, a team Adena beat twice in league play. Leaders for Alexander were libero Lauren Thomas with 22 digs, setter Lauren Raines with 29 assists, Betsy Irwin and Whitney Smith with 12 kills apiece. Irwin, Smith and Megan McCoy had a combined 13 blocks. Division IV This division features the top three teams in the state, Marion Local, Jackson Center, and Norwalk St. Paul, in that order. Jackson Center defeated Sidney Lehman Catholic for the second time this season to earn their first ticket to the final four. The Tigers won the rematch 25-17, 25-23, 27-25, which was somewhat easier than their five game victory over the Cavaliers in September. In that one, the Tigers were coming off back to back losses to Marion Local and Anna, and “being able to win on their (Lehman's) home floor was a big boost to our season” according to Coach Kim Metz. Games two and three were close all the way. The final call in game two was on ball handling by Lehman. In game three the Tigers took a 17-12 lead, but Lehman gradually closed to a 23-all tie. Jackson Center got to points 24 and 25 first, only to lose both edges, the second on an attack error. At that point, Allissa Ware came up big with a kill. Casey Gates served for match point, and when the ball was returned, Ware’s attack was blocked out of bounds with Gates behind her yelling out. Leading the Tigers were Ware and Gates with 30 and 14 kills, respectively; Bethany Hoehne and Cortnee Sosby with 23 and 14 assists; Ware, Gates and Tara Spicer with two blocks each; and, Jessica Frye with three aces. Gates led the backcourt with 22 digs, and Ware, Kara DeVelvis, Hoehne and Sosby combined for 29 more. Jackson Center’s Friday opponent will be Norwalk St. Paul. The Lady Flyers, who beat New Knoxville in last year’s final, advanced with a 17-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-21 win over Kidron Central Christian. After losing the first game, St. Paul adjusted defensively to focus on Kidron’s middles, according to Coach Nancy Miller. The kids settled in, their passing picked up and the offense came alive. Christine Dow, who only had two or three swings in game one, finished with 30 for 31 hitting and 16 kills. Amber Welfle and Victoria Spaar added 13 and 12 kills respectively. Hannah Livengood had 26 digs, Andrea Fritz 42 assists, and Spaar and Welfle eight blocks apiece. The other bracket features top ranked Marion Local, making its third appearance, against Newark Catholic, which even someone from Mars would recognize. The Green Wave returns for the 16th time in their quest for a state record ninth championship. Marion Local toppled undefeated Edon and Hopewell-Loudon in the regional. Leaders against Hopewell were Abby Niekamp with 14 kills, Megan Barhorst with 10 kills and six blocks, Alyssa Winner seven kills and three aces, Kristin Bergman six kills and 10 digs and Jessica Schwieterman with 15 digs. Katie Schulze and Shelby Moeller combined for 34 assists and Moeller added two aces and seven digs. The Flyers had more difficulty with league opponents in the district. They beat New Bremen 25-20, 31-33, 25-17, 25-17, then Delphos St. John’s 23-25, 25-9, 25-20, 25-17. After losing game two to New Bremen, Coach Amy Steininger told the team that “it was just like Versailles on their home court, where we won the first and lost the 2nd…we won the next two…I told the girls we can do the same thing here and not to worry about losing that close game because we played well”. She also stressed they “needed to come out with fire and intensity at the beginning of the 3rd game and get the momentum back immediately since New Bremen was on an emotional high”. And she added “They did”. The Flyers overcame serve receive problems in game one against Delphos to win that match. On paper Newark Catholic seems at a disadvantage here. The Green Wave have more losses than the other three teams combined and are only ranked 19th. But Newark Catholic’s league qualified four teams for regionals. All their losses are all to league powers or strong Division I schools, and they won the Golden Spike tournament in Toledo. Coach Jeri Helfer says they’ve gotten much better as the year has gone on, having started with a young team after graduating five starters. Newark Catholic rolled over Berlin Hiland on Saturday 25-15, 25-14, 25-16, led by Jordan Stacey with 19 kills and 5 blocks, Erica Rath with 10 blocks, Angela McNulty and Alyssa Frick with seven kills each and Laney Warthen with 32 assists and 3 aces.
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