Redskins beat the heat, Bulldogs

CELINA - The heat inside the Celina Intermediate School gymnasium was sweltering.

The play of the St. Henry volleyball team was equally as hot.

The Redskins improved to 4-1 with a 25-15, 25-14, 25-13 win over Celina on Tuesday night in a battle of Mercer County clubs.

St. Henry relied on big service run to take big leads. In the first set, Hannah Bruns served up six straight points to increase a one-point lead into a 9-2 margin. Later, Ashley Siefring had a four-point service to extend the margin to 17-5. Celina inched back and got two within six at 20-14 thanks to several St. Henry attack errors and solid blocking from Maria Lutz and Maddy Luebke. Danielle Lange stopped the run with a kill and then served up three points to get to set point. Luebke got a kill to extend the set, but Nora Vaughn ended the set with a kill.

"I think we play with our emotions and internalize our mistakes," Celina coach Amy Sutter said. "We play great when we're loose. We had moments of phenomenal play, but we have to find a way to continue that consistency where we are having those downward moments. We can find it in ourselves to bring it back and keep plugging away."

Celina stayed with St. Henry for most of the second set, taking a 9-8 lead on a Brooke Robbins kill and later going up 10-9 on a Maria Lutz block. Olivia Winner tied the set at 10-all and Ashley Siefring served up seven straight points, three coming on aces, to give the Redskins a 17-10 lead. Celina was unable to get any closer than seven points the rest of the set, which ended with Lange tallying an ace.

"Ashley had a great serving night," St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck said. "I thought as a team we had a great serving night."

The Bulldogs continued to stay with the Redskins in the third set before Ashtyn Gerlach had a three-point service run to extend the Redskin lead to 10-7. Later, Bruns added a four-point run to make the score 17-8. Siefring closed out the match with four straight points, finishing with an ace for the final point.

"I felt like we played a complete, consistent match," Rosenbeck said. "That's something we've been struggling with our first four matches. It was good to see us play more consistently than we had at the first part of the season."

"We had some hitting errors, don't get me wrong, but we had some nice back row attacks tonight," Sutter said. "Maddy's and Maria's blocking was pretty good. We made some nice plays."

Siefring had eight kills and four aces for St. Henry. Lange added seven kills and Bruns finished with five kills and 11 digs. Gerlach had 13 digs and Carleigh Deitsch had 15 assists.

Luebke had 11 kills and four blocks for Celina. Maria Lutz added three blocks and Samantha Carlin had 20 assists.

Both teams begin league play on Thursday. St. Henry hosts Coldwater in the Midwest Athletic Conference opener while Celina remains home to host Kenton in the Western Buckeye League lid lifter.