Redskins, Flyers march on to district

By COLIN FOSTER
cfoster@dailystandard.com

ST. HENRY - Marion Local and St. Henry each watched from the stands as the other took care of business on the court Thursday.

The Flyers and Redskins will be on the court together next week in Van Wert.

Each posted three-set victories over their respective opponents in the Division IV sectional championship doubleheader at Redskin Gymnasium. Fourth-seeded Marion Local defeated sixth-seeded Parkway 25-13, 25-19 and 25-17. Top-seeded St. Henry took down eighth-seeded Crestview by scores of 25-12, 25-22 and 26-24 in a matchup between conference champions.

Monday's All-MAC district semifinal doubleheader features four of the top-five teams in the state. No. 1 St. Henry clashes with No. 5 Marion Local at 6 p.m. No. 2 Fort Recovery meets No. 3 New Bremen in the nightcap.
Marion Local 3, Parkway 0

Marion Local coach Erica Schulze said the game plan against Parkway was to be aggressive on the attack.

Her team stuck to the script.

The Flyers breezed past the Panthers in the opener and then outplayed them down the stretch in the next two sets to come away with the sweep.

"I'm happy with how we played," Schulze said. "We knew going in that Parkway's a scrappy team and they send a lot of stuff over the net. I thought our girls did a good job at every opportunity of going up and swinging and being aggressive. That was the game plan. I'm glad we were able to execute and stick with that."

Marion Local improved to 17-6 on the season. Parkway finished the campaign with a record of 11-12.

Natalie Rethman had a four-point service run to open the match, Brooke Homan had two kills and a block in that span and Ava Rose later added a pair of aces as the Flyers built an 8-2 lead, prompting a Parkway timeout. That short break didn't disrupt the Flyers, though. They took a double-digit lead on a kill by Aubrey Thobe and continued to add on until the set ended at 25-13.

Thobe started the second set with back-to-back spikes, and the Panthers were forced to take a timeout with the Flyers again leading 8-2. This time, however, Parkway showed some resistance. Aces by Grace Swander and McKenna Johnson and a kill by Leah Harshman helped pull Parkway to within four at 14-10. The Flyers scored the next three points, but the Panthers continued fighting back, cutting the deficit to 22-19. The final three points went to the Flyers thanks to a pair of hitting errors and Thobe's fifth kill of the set.

The match was tied for the first time in set three. No lead changes ever occurred, though. The score was leveled for the first time at 3-all and again at 6s. Marion followed with an 8-1 run, and Thobe added to her kill tally with spikes on consecutive sequences. The Panthers made a late push to cut the score to four at 19-15 on Swander's fourth ace of the night, but Carrie Fesenmyer and Rethman followed with aces of their own and kills by Alana Pohlman and Thobe allowed Marion to close out the 25-17 win.

Thobe had a game-high 13 kills. Homan added 11 kills and four blocks. Rethman tallied 29 assists, Rachel Partington had 14 digs and Grace Knapke had a game-high five blocks.

Swander finished with six kills and four aces. Gracyn Temple had a team-high 15 assists and Kris Kirby added 13 digs.

St. Henry 3,
Crestview 0

The MAC champs outlasted the NWC champs in three sets - and two of them were highly competitive.

St. Henry led 10-6 in the opener and then pulled away with a 15-6 run.

The Knights were the first to reach 20 in each of the following sets, but the Redskins found a way to finish.

Hannah Bruns had a couple early kills in the second set as St. Henry raced out to 7-2 lead. The Knights fired back with an 11-3 run, taking their first lead on a Lexi Gregory kill. The Redskins reclaimed the lead by scoring the next four points via kills by Danielle Lange, Hannah Bruns and Addy Vaughn and a four-hit violation. The set was tied eight times after the midway point. The last tied occurred at 22-all, and the Redskins secured the final three points on spikes by Bruns and Vaughn and a Crestview hitting blunder.

There were nine ties in the final set. Crestview stormed out of the gate with a 6-2 run. St. Henry came back to tie the score at 11-all, but a five-point run gave the Knights a semi-comfortable cushion. It wasn't comfortable enough, though. Crestview had a 23-22 lead and a 24-23 lead, but Ashley Siefring knotted the score both times with kills. Back-to-back Crestview hitting errors gave St. Henry the sweep.

"Crestview's a solid team," St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck said. "Defensively, I thought they played very well tonight. I thought they played way more consistent and I feel like they played like they almost wanted it more than us. They were picking up balls all over the place. I have to give credit to (Crestview coach Tammy Gregory) for preparing them and being ready to play a great game.

"But I have to give credit to my girls for finding a way to finish at the end," Rosenbeck added.

Bruns had a team-high 13 kills, 15 digs and 12 service points. Siefring had 11 kills, Vaughn contributed 10 kills and 17 assists, Carleigh Deitsch had 23 assists and Ashlyn Gerlach added 16 digs.
The Rematch

The Redskins won the lone meeting with the Flyers this season, taking the match by scores of 25-19, 25-23 and 25-19 on Sept. 6 at the Hangar.

Thoughts from the coaches leading up to Monday's rematch.

"We know St. Henry is a very good and a very aggressive team," Schulze said. "I think almost every week they've been ranked No. 1 in the state. We know once tournament starts that everyone's record is 0-0. We're just going to go out and enjoy the moment and have fun."

"Marion has made a lot of changes since we played them last and they've got a ton better," Rosenbeck said. "They're very consistent and they have a lot of options in the front row, too. It's not just one player they're going to. They're running a lot of different plays. We're going to have to be solid defensively. We're going to have to do a lot better job blocking than we did tonight."