Celina, St. Marys to meet for district title

BLUFFTON - The Battle of Grand Lake will happen again an hour up the road after Celina and St. Marys won their Division II district volleyball semifinal matches on Tuesday at the Sommer Center on the campus of Bluffton University.

Celina's trek to the district final was shaky after a dominating 25-9 first set win over Wapakoneta. The Redskins won the second set 25-22 and gave the Bulldogs fits over the final two sets before Celina moved on with wins of 25-20 and 25-23.

In the opener, the Roughriders struggled early and were down 23-18 to Van Wert before rattling off seven straight points to win the first set 25-23 before closing out the sweep with scores of 25-14 and 25-12 in the final two sets.

The teams square off for a regional berth on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. St. Marys won the regular season meeting in a five-set classic after the Bulldogs jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
Celina 3, Wapakoneta 1

Everything that could go Celina's way in the opening set did so. After Logan Boley served up three points to help put the Bulldogs up 4-0, Cami Dzendzel stepped to the service line and came up with 11 straight points to make the score 16-1. Cora Lutz had three kills and Alyssa Hoyng added two more kills before the Redskins stopped the run. Lutz later added four straight points to make it 23-7.

"We were moving. We were talking and executing at the net," Celina coach Amy Sutter said. "All the cylinders were firing."

Just when it looked like Celina would make quick work of Wapakoneta after taking a 10-4 lead in the second set, things began to deteriorate quickly. A mix of solid hitting from Kiersten Wilcox, Addy Gray and Kasey Helmstetter, mixed in with a hitting slump by Celina, allowed Wapak to tie the game at 14-all and followed with ties of 15-, 16-, 17-, 19- and 20-all. Wapak went up 22-20 on back-to-back hitting errors by Celina. Wilcox later added two kills, including the set-clincher.

"I think we just got a little too relaxed," Sutter said. "We weren't moving as much. We shanked a few balls, hit a few out of bounds. Everybody took their turn making a handful of errors and that got in our heads."

The Redskins maintained their momentum at the start of the third set, but Hoyng served up four straight points, two coming via aces and the other two on a block and kill from Lutz to put Celina up 9-6. Lutz had a service run of her own to put Celina up 19-10. Wapakoneta did not give up, scraping its way back and getting to within 23-20 before kills by Hoyng and Lutz closed out the set.
  Wapakoneta jumped out to a 5-2 lead to start the fourth set before Celina came back to turn the tide with extended service runs by Carly Post and Trish Dennis to put the Bulldogs up 18-11. The Bulldogs were up 21-15 before Wapakoneta got a side-out and the serve. Faith Hensley served up four straight points to cut the Celina lead to 21-19 before a hitting error by the Redskins gave Celina the chance to take the lead at 24-20. Wapak again challenged and whittled the lead down to 24-23 before Lutz tallied a kill to close out the match.

"(Wapakoneta) played a nice game," Sutter said. "I'm sure they studied our game tape (from Celina's regular season win over the Redskins). They covered all the short stuff where we like to hit. They blocked us well and played great defense. They were scrappy."

Lutz led Celina with 14 kills. Hoyng had 12 kills and Paige Sutter recorded 40 assists  
St. Marys 3, Van Wert 0

The Cougars took advantage of some early mistakes by the Roughriders. Emma Kohn and Landrie Koontz were beneficiaries of timely kills that helped Van Wert break a 16-all tie with a 7-2 run to make it 23-18.

"We were playing kind of tight to start the game," St. Marys coach Monica VanderHorst said. "We weren't passing well. We were standing up on our passes and not moving our feet. This team doesn't really look at the scoreboard."

Ally Angstmann stopped the Cougar run with a kill to give Quincy Rable the serve. A Van Wert hitting error was followed by a kill by Ally Angstmann and a block by Cortney Voisard to make it 23-22. A Rable ace tied the set, a Voisard stuff block gave St. Marys match point and then a Cougar hitting error gave the Roughriders the set.

"Good teams always find a way to win," VanderHorst said. "It was very sloppy to start the game. Then we started passing the ball and started running. When you run that quick offense with Natalie Kuenning setting and Erika and Ally (Angstmann). Those are really hard to defense. Cortney did a nice job and Taryn (Swander). When you get all your hitters involved, it's tough for the blockers."

The momentum continued into the second set with St. Marys taking a 7-2 lead out of the game. WBL Player of the Year Erika Angstmann put the set in the Roughriders pocket with an eight-point service run, featuring three aces, to make it 18-5. Van Wert tried to make the set closer, but serving errors put St. Marys in command of the match.

The third set was all Roughriders, who jumped out to an 8-0 lead on great serving from Kuenning, who served seven straight points, VanderHorst was able to get some subs in later in the set to give them playing time.

Erika Angstmann had 15 kills on the night. Ally Angstmann and Voisard each added seven kills. Kuenning had five aces and 23 assists.