Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022
Off to a great start
Celina opens volleyball season with win over Jay County
By Gary R. Rasberry
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Celina's Mylee Sapp (6) goes up for a spike during Monday's season-opening volleyball match with Jay County at the Intermediate School. The Bulldogs defeated the Patriots in three sets.
CELINA - All in all, it was a good start for the Celina volleyball team as it looks to defend its Western Buckeye League title.
The Bulldogs opened the season in solid fashion with a 25-15, 25-7, 25-11 victory over Jay County in an interstate battle at the Intermediate School.
Celina only trailed once - when the Patriots tallied the opening point of the third set - and tied once - when the Bulldogs got the next point in that set - and used solid hitting and serving to roll away from the Patriots.
"Our girls have been itching to get into the regular season after last year didn't end the way we wanted," said Celina coach Phil Bange. "We've got a nice group of upperclassmen who have been working hard and are ready to go. They came out with a lot of fire and passion tonight."
Celina jumped out to good leads in the first two sets, leading the first set 6-1 after a Brooklyn Bourne ace and 10-4 before the Patriots inched closer and got within 11-10 with the serve. Evie Holstad quickly made it a two-point margin with a kill, and aces and kills, especially from Holstad and Ava Knapke, down the stretch allowed Celina to snare the opener.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Celina's Amelia Lutz (8) spikes the ball as Jay County's Maggie Dillon (5) and Abbie Fields defend during Monday's non-conference volleyball match at the Intermediate School. Celina won in three sets.
In the second set, great serving by Bourne and Sarah Giesige had Celina in front 10-1. The Patriots could only get as close as 10-5 after Sophie Saxman served up three straight points, then the Bulldogs pulled away as Samantha Jenkins served up five straight points and Amelia Lutz served up the final three.
After the teams traded points to start the third set, Celina went to work as Bourne served up two straight aces and Mylee Sapp added a kill to make it 4-1 early. Jay County trimmed the margin to 4-3, but Payton Bertke came up with four straight points to make it 11-4.
Later Giesige had another run to put Celina up 18-8. Bertke added the exclamation point with an ace on match point.
"Our serving was tough all night," said Bange. "Amelia came up with some big kills. Evie and Brooklyn as well. Our hitters were hitting hard and connecting. Everyone was involved. Our libero, Allison Schwieterman, is very quick. We did a great job with serve receive. Solid all around."
Lutz led Celina with nine kills with Knapke and Holstad recording eight and seven kills, respectively. Bertke had 31 assists and four aces while Bourne served up five aces.
The Bulldogs jump right into league play on Thursday with a road trip to Van Wert.
