Cardinals fall to Senecas in five-set battle

FAIRBORN - The momentum New Bremen gained in its comeback win in the Division IV state volleyball semifinal on Thursday carried over to the first set of Saturday's championship match.   

After the first set, however, Tiffin Calvert came back to make it a match, winning the next two sets before New Bremen won the fourth to force a winner-take-all set. In the final set, the Senecas took control at 7-6 and never looked back in beating the Cardinals for their first state volleyball title 12-25, 25-20, 25-21, 22-25, 15-10 at the Ervin J. Nutter Center on the campus of Wright State University.

New Bremen, looking for a second straight state title, ends a fine season at 24-5. Calvert finishes 26-3.

"My thoughts are these girls are champions," New Bremen coach Diana Kramer said. "The trophy might say runners-up, but the girls are champions on the floor, off the floor and champions later in life."

After having rallied from down 0-2 against Monroeville on Thursday, the Cardinals looked like champions in the opening set. Macy Puthoff served up four straight points to put Bremen up 5-0 early. Rachel Kremer added four points and Abbi Thieman served up four of her own as New Bremen was up by as many as 14 at 21-7. Josie Reinhart delivered the first-set hammer with a kill to close out the win.

"I just wanted the first set to get over," Senecas' first-year coach Lori Rombach said. "I wasn't nervous. This is a big stage at a big arena. I just wanted the girls to relax. I see every day how good they are when they're loose and aggressive. … I just wanted them to settle down and play. I was trying to keep my composure to give them that energy."

Calvert came out firing in the second set with a 4-0 lead before New Bremen caught up. The teams were tied five times before the Cardinals caught fire for a 17-13 lead. Ashlyn Jones stopped Bremen's run with a kill. Emma White stepped back to serve for the Senecas and tallied four straight points to give Calvert an 18-17 lead. The Cardinals tied it up at 18- and 19-all before a Lexie White kill put Calvert up for good.

"They a very good team. I think we're evenly matched," Kramer said of Calvert. "They had a couple lucky breaks and it's a game of momentum. We were ahead in all five sets and they were ahead in all five sets"

"I felt that was the point in the game where we started to relax," Rombach said of the comeback in the second set. "There were some big digs from Shelby (Hemmiger), AJ (Hemmiger) and Ashlyn (Jones) and amazing blocks from Zoe (Meyer) and Lila (Gehring) at the front. It was a peppering of things where it all started to happen."

The third set replicated the second. The teams were tied six times and swapped the lead on three occasions. New Bremen led 14-11 thanks to a Diana Heitkamp service run before Sydney Johnson served up three points for the Senecas as they grabbed a 19-17 lead. The Cardinals got to within one twice before Calvert won to take a 2-1 lead.

The Cardinals' backs were against the wall yet again in the postseason and they bowed said backs and charged out to a 17-8 lead in the fourth set. Macy Puthoff and Kremer each had solid service runs to ignite the charge. The Senecas came back and were within two at 24-22 before Ashton Heitkamp ended the set with a spike to send the match to the fifth set.

"We were feeling pretty good," Kremer said "We were taking it one point at a time and doing our job."

The Cardinals served first, but Calvert scored the opening point. New Bremen came back quickly to tie and was leading 5-3 after a Kremer kill, but Jones followed with a kill of her own to send teammate Emma White back to serve. Emma White, one of three freshmen that play for the Senecas, served up three straight points to put Calvert in front 7-6. New Bremen got back a point, but the Senecas started extending their lead as Kramer used both her timeouts to try and stifle the rally. Emma White wrapped up the match with a block to send the Senecas onto the floor in celebration.

"It didn't even register," Meyer said of the final block. "I was like 'Sweet! That's a block.' Then I was like 'Oh my gosh!' It was crazy."

"These girls learned a lot of life lessons this year," Kramer said. "They're going to take that with them for the rest of their lives. There's a lot of tears right now, but we're going to look back and be really proud of what we accomplished."

"There are a lot of things to be happy about," said Thieman, one of four seniors playing their last varsity match along with Kremer, Blake Snider and Madison Pape. "It's a sad moment that we didn't end up winning, but it's also a 'Wow! We weren't supposed to be in this state tournament at all.' That's one of the things you stay positive about."

Taylor Paul had 15 kills for the Cardinals. Kremer added 12 kills. Thieman finished with 28 assists and 20 digs. Blake Snider had 22 digs.

Jones and Meyer each had nine kills for the Senecas. Jones added 28 digs.