'Sweep' revenge

NEW BREMEN - Even with its back against the wall in the last two sets, New Bremen never lost confidence.

Despite a three-set loss to undefeated New Knoxville Rangers just 16 days earlier, New Bremen showed up playing like defending state champions in the Division IV district finals Thursday night at the Cardinal Gymnasium.

New Bremen controlled the Rangers early, winning the first set 25-17, fought off five set-points to win a wild second set, 30-28, and then rallied from five points down late in the third set to advance to the Sweet 16 with a 25-23 win to complete the sweep.

"You got to step onto that floor with confidence," New Bremen coach Diana Kramer said. "We talk every day about how growth isn't linear. You're going to have setbacks in sports, you're going to have setbacks in life. But you got to find a way to keep pushing forward and find confidence within yourselves, and confidence in who we are as a team."

The Cardinals scored the first four points of the night and never trailed in the first set. New Knoxville got to within a point, 14-13, but New Bremen went on a 9-1 run and coasted across the finish line.

"We played super tense to start with," New Knoxville coach Meg Lageman said. "Bremen has a lot of experience with the big games, and tonight was probably our first huge tournament game like this."

New Bremen jumped out to an early lead in the second set, but things tightened up quickly. The Rangers took their first lead, 12-11, on a kill by Avery Henschen.

New Knoxville maintained the lead down the stretch, and served with a 24-22 lead. The Cardinals fought back to take a 25-24 lead on an ace by Claire Pape. The Rangers regained the lead, only to see New Bremen fight off three more set points.

The Cards finally strung together three unanswered points, capped by a kill from Elli Roetgerman to win the second set, 30-28.

"It was a battle of willpower. Great players going at it on each side," Kramer said. "It was back-and-forth, back-and forth. We caught a couple breaks at the end. Then we stepped up, rose to the occasion, and found a way to earn points at the end of that set when it really mattered."

"We just didn't bring our A-game, but I can't complain about our effort," Lageman said. "We just couldn't quite get it together. Even when we were in the lead, they (New Bremen) seemed to make their way back and we couldn't finish."

Midway through the third set, New Knoxville maintained the momentum and with the Rangers leading, 22-17, the evening appeared to be heading toward a fourth set.

Two quick points by the Cardinals forced Lageman to call a timeout.

"Our motto this year is 'All-In,' " Kramer said. "And we looked at each other in that huddle and said, 'We're going to be all-in on every single point moving forward, and we're going to find a way to win this set.' "

New Bremen went on a 6-1 run, including an ace off the tape of the net by Ellie Tangeman to capture the district title.

Kaylee Freund paced the Cardinal front line with 11 kills, Roetgerman and Josie Reinhart added eight each.

"I can't be prouder of my girls right now," Kramer said. "It's kind been up-and-down at the end of this season, but they believe in each other, they believe in themselves, and for that I'm really, really proud of them."

Carsyn Henschen paced the three-pronged hitting attack for the Rangers with 14 kills, while Avery Henschen and Morgan Leffel each added 10.

"I seriously can't be more proud of these girls," Lageman said. "We came in undefeated (21-0) having only lost four sets. We were MAC Champions outright for the first time ever in our program. It's really unbelievable if you think about it. It's not the way we wanted to finish, but hopefully we can change that next year."

New Bremen (22-3) will face the winner of Saturday's match between Jackson Center and Tri-Village in the regional semifinals next Thursday beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Northmont High School.

And one thing Kramer can count on in the regionals will be confidence.

"Going forward, it's only going to get tougher, and the moment is gong to get bigger," she said. "But we've been in those moments before and we're confident moving forward."