Gilliland, Cavs shock defending champ Redskins

COLDWATER - Defending Midwest Athletic Conference champion St. Henry rallied back from a two-sets-to-none deficit and took momentum into the fifth set against Coldwater on Thursday night.

But the Cavaliers had the momentum stopper in the form of reigning MAC Player of the Year Lauren Gilliland.

The Ball State commit ended the evening with the last of her game-high 29 kills, as Coldwater finally finished off St. Henry by a count of 20-18 in the fifth set. The Cavs won the opening two sets by scores of 25-19 and then the lost the next two 20-25 and 21-25 before winning the finale.

Coldwater became the first team to defeat St. Henry this season. The Cavs improved to 6-2 and 1-0 in MAC play. St. Henry fell to 5-1 and 0-1.

"I'm just really excited for the girls," Coldwater coach Nikki Etzler said. "I mean, that's our first MAC game, so I'm excited to see where we're at. It's incredible to be here. Both sides had to be clutch at the end of the game - I'm just really excited that we were the ones that came out on top."

The Redskins had too many unforced errors in set one. And they also had to deal with Gilliland. St. Henry fell into an 8-3 hole early, but creeped back into the set with a 5-1 run. Coldwater held off St. Henry at every turn, though.

With Coldwater in front 20-18, Gilliland helped close out the set with a kill and a pair of blocks - which included a stuff at the net to end it and give the Redskins their second set loss all season.

St. Henry fell behind in the next set, too.

Gilliland had three early spikes with Kelsey Kahlig adding two of her own as the Cavs staked claim on an 8-3 advantage. Coldwater's front row of Kahlig, Gilliland, Katie Alig, Annelise Harlamert and Jenna Leugers continuously made it hard on St. Henry's hitters, and Gilliland kept her personal hit-a-thon going strong.

St. Henry came back from a once double-digit deficit, cutting the score to 22-18 on a Nora Vaughn kill. But Alig followed with little dump to the corner for a point, St. Henry was called for a violation and Harlamert quick set Alig for the ending kill.

"Coming out the way we did in Game 1 and Game 2, we were not ready to play against a really good Coldwater team," St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck said. "So we need to come into games more focused and ready to start stronger."

But the visitors seemingly took back momentum in the third set.

After racing out to a 5-1 lead, St. Henry stayed in front for the remainder. Coldwater made multiple pushes to get back in it, cutting the deficit to one twice, before St. Henry responded with points. The key stretch came late, when on three consecutive plays Hannah Bruns got a kill, followed by a Mia Niekamp stuff and then spike, which made it 20-15. Bruns had five spikes for scores in the win.

The fourth set featured 10 ties and six lead changes. The Redskins trailed 18-14 after a 5-1 run by the Cavs, with Gilliland collecting her sixth and seventh kills of the set during that stretch. But Carley Winner would block Gilliland on her next spike attempt. Winner added another stuff shortly after, which tied the score. A kill by Grace Bertke returned a one-point lead briefly to Coldwater. However, Bruns totaled three kills down the stretch to help St. Henry close it out.

Coldwater's first lead of the fifth set didn't come until the midway point. Then a couple Cav hitting errors and a spike by Bruns gave St. Henry a 10-7 edge. Alaina Steinke kept Coldwater afloat with a pair of kills, and Gilliland knotted the score at 13 with a kill of her own.

The Cavaliers failed to score while serving set point on four occasions. But finally, they caught a break when the Redskins were called for a violation - and Gilliland followed with her match-ending spike.

"It was great that we fought back in Games 3 and 4," Rosenbeck said. "We just had some untimely errors that got Gilliland back in the front row."

"There was a matchup change in set three," Etzler said. "I think Trish rotated like three rotations so that she wouldn't have Hannah and Lauren on each other like they were in sets one and two. We decided that we weren't going to do that. … I think we missed seven serves in set three. We decided that we were going to keep things as they were and try to do a better job serving.

"But I like where we ended (in the fifth set) with Lauren coming to the front row," Etzler added. "Because in a game going to 15, it's different than a game to 25. Your rotations and who's serving at what point of the game and who's front row."

Gilliland had 10 blocks (five solo, five assists), as Coldwater ended St. Henry's stretch of four-straight sweeps.

"She's a great volleyball player, hence why she has a D-I scholarship," Rosenbeck said. "She's an unbelievable blocker. She's everywhere. She's great with her hands, and then hitting wise, she sees the court so well. She's such a smart player. It's tough to stop her."

Harlamert had 54 assists and Alig added eight digs and an ace for Coldwater.

Addy Vaughn had 34 assists and 21 digs for St. Henry, Bruns tallied 23 kills and 18 digs, Marlee Vaughn dug up 24 and Niekamp added five stuffs.

St. Henry hosts a tournament on Saturday. Coldwater hosts Wapakoneta on Tuesday.