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St. Marys' Madi Steger (7) tries to get the ball past Celina blockers Kira Bange (15) and Mylee Sapp.
CELINA - The coaching staff has been preaching positivity during Celina's rough start to the volleyball season.
Tuesday was all positive for the Bulldogs.
Celina won the Battle of Grand Lake with St. Marys in four sets - 25-15, 26-28, 25-20, 25-17 - at the Intermediate School.
The Bulldogs, 4-9 overall and 3-1 in the Western Buckeye League, have now won back-to-back games for the first time this season. The Roughriders (2-9, 0-4 WBL) have lost two straight.
"We were like 1-7 or something like that and then we managed to get a win the other night against Kenton," Celina coach Amy Sutter said. "We're learning not to get mentally down on ourselves. We're kind of rebounding."
Both teams showed the ability to rebound from tough breaks Tuesday, but Celina made fewer mistakes.
St. Marys scored the first point of set one, but Celina scored the next three and never trailed again in the frame. Lilly Shreffler, Mylee Sapp and Kira Bange took turns at the net offensively. Avery Niekamp added an ace in the 25-15 win.
The second match was tied eight times. St. Marys let a 19-15 lead evaporate as Celina went on a 4-0 run. Celina had a 23-20 lead, then St. Marys went on a 4-0 run. Celina avoided defeat twice on set point, but a four-hit call eventually sealed a 28-26 win for the Roughriders.
Celina's Haley Kizer (4) sets up teammate Lilly Shreffler for the spike during Tuesday's match with St. Marys. Kizer went over the 1,000 career assist mark in the Bulldogs' four-set win over the Roughriders at Celina Intermediate School.
Haley Kizer - who reached her milestone 1,000th career assist in the match - had a couple aces as Celina rolled out to a quick lead in set three, 13-4. St. Marys did battle back, though, with back-to-back aces by Sophie Oleyar helping cut the deficit to 19-18. But the Roughriders couldn't get out of their own way, committing service errors twice when facing a one-point margin. A final St. Marys hitting error sealed a 25-20 Celina win.
With the scored tied at 10-all in set four, the Bulldogs took control for good with a 7-0 run.
"We passed better tonight than we have in the last few games," Sutter said. "Defensively, I think we read their hitters better than we have in the last few games, and I think we're a really solid team when we get the ball to our hitters."
"This was a good game," said St. Marys coach Caley Yoder, a Celina alum. "It was high energy. We love that sort of play. … But what I told the girls (after the game) was that if we played the way we did today back in August, we'd be a completely different team now.
"I thought we did a really nice job from the backline and starting to get touches on the ball in that second and third sets," she added.
Madi Steger led St. Marys in kills with 14. Elle Craft and Audra Clark tallied 15 digs apiece. Oleyar had four aces and four blocks.
Kizer tallied 40 assists and six aces to lead Celina. Sapp had a game-high 15 kills and 13 digs. Sidney Jenkins notched 27 digs, nine kills and four aces. Shreffler had eight kills, Niekamp totaled four aces and 10 digs, Bange had 11 kills and Braelyn Ashmore added 11 digs.
Both teams have WBL action again on Thursday as Celina hosts Elida and St. Marys welcomes Van Wert.
Celina's Avery Niekamp goes to the floor for the dig during Tuesday's match with St. Marys.
