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Coldwater's Morgan Blasingame tips a shot past St. Henry's Morgan Baumer at the Palace on Thursday.
COLDWATER - Despite close scores, and aside from a late St. Henry run in the third set, Coldwater controlled the match Thursday.
The Cavaliers rarely trailed on the way to a 25-21, 25-21, 23-25, 25-21 win to open their Midwest Athletic Conference schedule with a victory at the Palace.
"I was so proud of them for pushing through those last points," Coldwater coach Nikki Etzler said. "When you get to 20, it's so hard to earn those last five points. Every point is so hard, it seems like, at 20, when we're trying to play clean. A few errors, but we're so excited to have our first win in the MAC."
After five early ties, Coldwater (7-0) took the lead for good in the first set at 11-10 on a Redskins serve over the end line. Spencer Etzler landed an ace in front of Chloe Gels to stretch the lead to two, but St. Henry (3-2) kept the Cavaliers from pulling away, as neither team had a service run longer than three points in the first set.
Rya Buschur served up three points to bring the Redskins within 22-19, but Madison Wendel had two kills in the next three to give Coldwater set point. A long serve extended the set before a dig by Lydia Werling caromed off the ceiling to end it.
"We just made a lot of errors that we can't make against really good teams," St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck said. "Coldwater's an awesome volleyball team, and so to make as many errors as we did at the service line, some untimely errors hitting-wise and passing-wise, we can't do that."
In the second, the Cavaliers took a 4-1 lead on a four-point service run by Etzler and held at least a two-point margin the rest of the way.
Coldwater's Keira Knapke takes a shot as St. Henry's Chloe Gels goes up for a block.
Chloe Gels ended a long point with a kill that made it 22-20, but her next shot sailed out of bounds over a ducking Etzler, and Keira Knapke fired an ace inside the back line for set point. Ellie Fullenkamp got one back for the Redskins, but Mia Knapke answered with a kill around the block to finish off the set.
In the third, St. Henry fell behind 9-5, thanks in part to two kills and a block by Wendel in four points, but avoided falling further behind. Trailing 19-15, Molly Wendel got a tip to fall and Chloe Gels got an ace and a kill, knotting the score and forcing coach Etzler to call time.
A block by Fullenkamp and Werling put the Redskins in front 24-23, and Fullenkamp fired a shot just inside the right line to give St. Henry the set.
But Coldwater opened a 7-1 lead in the fourth, with Blasingame and Etzler each firing aces, and the Redskins never came all the way back.
"I just wish we started from the beginning of the game," Rosenbeck said. "I told them, 'We can't wait until we're down 7-2, 7-1, 8-1 - whatever we were, every single game - to have a fight. That fight has to come from the beginning.' "
Olivia Broering served up a five-point run with three kills by Etzler to make it 16-8, but Lauren Thieman answered with her own five-point run. St. Henry got within two as Molly Wendel landed a tip and Karlee Buschur fired a kill to make it 23-21, but Werling's serve went long and Blasingame finished it off with a shot to the back right.
Coach Etzler noted that the Cavaliers had a particular rotation they'd been working on that got points late in sets. Keira Knapke, Abigail Schwieterman and Mia Knapke, who followed each other at the service line, closed out the three set wins.
Coldwater was better from the line, notching six aces against 12 service errors. St. Henry had 17 errors and four aces, its second-worst service game of the season. Its worst was the Cavalier Spikeoff final, a 2-0 loss to Coldwater.
"You try to figure out what you can do in this rotation, who you can serve the seam to," coach Etzler said. "I think we went away from their libero (Rya Buschur) in set 4, which was beneficial to us, and it caused them some havoc."
Werling reached a career milestone late in the first set, setting up Morgan Baumer for a kill to earn her 2,000th career assist. She ended with 46 assists on the night.
"Lydia has been setting for us for four years now, and she's an awesome player," Rosenbeck said. "I'm so proud of everything she's accomplished, and she's going to continue to do great things the rest of the season."
Madison Wendel had 15 kills and three blocks. Blasingame added 11 kills and 17 digs, and Etzler had 18 digs, nine kills and three aces. Gels got 13 kills and Fullenkamp added 11, while Rya Buschur had 25 digs.
St. Henry has a chance to bounce back when it hosts the St. Henry Invitational on Saturday, while Coldwater returns to action Tuesday when Wapakoneta comes to the Palace.
