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Tuscarawas County teams win league titles October 10, 2007 By Jim Jicha Two Tuscarawas County teams with state aspirations have won league titles in first place showdowns. On Monday Tuscarawas Central Catholic defeated second place Berlin Hiland 25-13, 25-21, 25-13 to clinch the Intra-Valley Conference title. And last week, Tuscarawas Valley toppled Wooster Triway 25-18, 25-13, 25-17 to tie the Titans for first in the Principals Athletic Conference. Tuscarawas Valley has since won out to finish 11-1, and Triway must win their final league match to tie. Tusky Central, which had won at Hiland 22-25, 25-19, 18-25, 25-17, 15-3 a month ago, was aiming to avoid of repeat of last year’s collapse when they dropped their final two conference matches to the Hawks and West Lafayette Ridgewood, and thereby lost a chance to win or tie for the title. The Saints had actually clinched a tie for this year’s championship thanks to Ridgewood, which beat Hiland last week, but Monday’s decisive win over the Hawks left no doubts. Leading all the way in game one, Tusky Central romped away from 9-8. The Saints lead up to then was helped by two line drive kills by sophomore middle Molly Lawless and a spike from frosh outside Millie Patchan. Hiland stayed close behind hitters Megan Yoder and sophomore Jill Martin. With Central up 12-10, senior outside Lizz Patchan scored twice on a tip and spike. After an exchange of errors, Lawless blew it open on four kills and a block as Lizz Patchan served seven points. The run was fueled by Patchan’s passing along with that of Stephanie Kopras, and the setting of Grace Burnham. The Hawks’ called timeout to no avail. Jena Stutzman finally stopped the run and Hiland scored twice, but Lawless terminated the next volley, and following an ace by Kopras, blocked for game point. Hiland led 5-3 in the next set helped by two kills by Martin, but then the Patchan sisters took charge of things. With junior Hannah serving six points of a 9-1 run, freshman Millie scored on a well-placed hit that was dug out of bounds, and senior Lizz spiked four kills. Lawless helped up the ante to 18-9. The Hawks rallied 7-2 behind spiking of Megan Yoder and Stutzman, along with setter Lauren Hershberger who placed her second dump of the game into the far right corner. But the rally was stymied by two serving errors, and after an ace by Burnham, Central was up 23-17. Hiland scored three more on a kill by Stutzman, an ace from sophomore Janelle Miller and another Hershberger dump. But Hannah Patchan scored a timely kill from back court, and following another Stutzman score, the Hawks got into the net trying to block Lawless. Game three was all Saints after an initial 1-0 Hiland lead. A Hawks’ serving error ended a 4-4 tie, and Lizz Patchan scored on a diving dig. Burnham added a tip, and after a point by Hiland, Millie Patchan spiked and tipped for kills as Lizz spiked down the line with Hannah serving Central to a 12-5 lead. The Saints added on from there to leads of 17-10, 20-11, 23-12, and Burnham teamed up with Lizz Patchan for a match ending block. Despite their previous close call with Hiland, the Saints came in Monday confident they would not have a problem. They gained that confidence, according to Assistant Coach Paula Lehigh, during their first loss of the season which occurred just two days before in a tri-match against host Tuscarawas Valley. The Division III Trojans are peaking, and Central battled them all the way before yielding 25-22, 23-25, 25-19. Tusky Valley was really on last Tuesday when they avenged one of their three losses and defeated Triway, which was missing their setting ace Allison Kearney, along with outside hitter Ellen Grenert (she’s been out all season) and their other setter Leah Molter. Triway started off ahead in game one, paced by 6’1” middle Kelsey Reichert. But after a net serve, sophomore Sarah Brown served three aces as the Trojans moved on top 10-7, and the lead steadily grew to 15-9 and 21-13 on kills by Brown and an ace from Karley Norris. Jess Harmon ended the game with a kill. The Trojans took charge of the next set in a hurry as libero Ariel Van Hatter served the first eight points, two coming on blocks by Shannon Watson. They later ran off another eight straight to go up 24-10. Heather Becker served that rally, as Watson spiked a kill and scored on a desperation diving out of bounds save that went over the net into a hole. Triway came out fighting in game three and took a 4-2 lead on a block by Stephanie Lawson and kills by Reichert and outside Allie Weese. Brown led the Trojans to a 10-5 lead, but Triway tied at 12 behind spiking from Lawson and sophomore outside Krista Leighty and an ace by Leigha Poulson. Brown led a Trojan mini-run to 16-13 with a big block on Reichert. But Triway retied it as defender Emily Cline dug a save into a Trojan hole, Weese nailed a kill, and Reichert gave Brown a taste of her own medicine. Brown parried back with a kill, and a Trojan net serve left the score knotted at 17. But alas for the Titans, Tusky Valley came up with yet another eight point run to end it. Allison Swarny started the onslaught with a cross court smash that was tipped out, and she and Brown scored another kill apiece as Norris served out.
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