Champions crowned in MAC

COLDWATER - Minster gave a valiant effort, but it wasn't enough to prevent Coldwater's march to the top of the MAC.

After dropping a tight second set, the Cavaliers regrouped and claimed comfortable wins in the third and fourth for a 25-13, 23-25, 25-17, 25-14 victory in a Midwest Athletic Conference volleyball match against Minster at the Palace on Thursday, securing a share of the MAC title for the first time since 2017.

"I'm so excited for the girls, happy for them, proud of them, for clinching this," Coldwater coach Nikki Etzler said. "It was certainly one of their goals this year, so to see them accomplish it, that's pretty awesome.

"But a lot of work to be done still, because they have some goals set for the tournament also."

Coldwater (18-4, 8-1 MAC) shares the title with New Bremen, which beat Fort Recovery in three sets on Thursday. The MAC championship trophy is dubbed the Lou Brunswick/Brian Harlamert trophy this year in honor of the two longtime Coldwater baseball coaches who died recently.

Coldwater, which celebrated its Senior Night before the match, got on a roll right out of the gate. Mia Knapke served up the first four points before Addi Inskeep got the Wildcats on the board, and after Jenna Leugers got the serve back for the Cavaliers, Spencer Etzler rattled off a nine-point service run as Coldwater took a 13-1 lead. Etzler notched a pair of aces in the run, while Leugers had three straight kills.

Minster (9-13, 2-7 MAC) got just one point back, on a kill by Lilly Barhorst, before the Cavaliers added on again. Kendra Clune notched an ace and a Wildcats hitting error made it 16-2, and Minster never got closer than eight the rest of the way.

The Wildcats weren't going to allow a similar start in the second set, taking a 6-3 lead before Coldwater came back to tie the set at 7. After six more ties, the Cavaliers took the lead at 15-14 on a shot by Morgan Blasingame inside the back line, and a three-point run by Blasingame helped Coldwater take a four-point lead.

Barhorst stopped the run and Kayla Lamm served up four points to tie the set at 19, and after Coldwater pulled away for a 23-19 lead, Garman called timeout and the Wildcats steadied the ship. A miscommunication caused the next point to fall between three Cavaliers, and Alayna Prenger launched a five-point service run.

A double-hit violation off the serve receive gave Minster set point, and Barhorst fired a shot from the left side that skipped high off the net and fell behind the Coldwater defense.

"We just played a little tight, because the girls wanted it so much," coach Etzler said. "They know, they just have to relax and play, because they had some miscues that we haven't had lately."

That proved to be the high-water mark for the Wildcats, as Coldwater jumped out to an early lead in each of the final two sets. The third set was 9-4 before a seven-point service run by Madison Wendel effectively put it out of reach, and a late run by Minster proved too little, too late.

"We felt like we forced Coldwater to make a ton of mistakes in the second set," Minster coach Cami Garman said. "We really pushed the serve, but we didn't really execute well enough, consistently enough, in sets three and four to get that ball rolling on our side."

In the fourth, Coldwater took a 6-2 lead before Minster rallied to force a tie at 7, but the Cavaliers quickly pulled away again. Blasingame fired a shot to the back right to give Coldwater the serve, Wendel served up three points to provide breathing room, and the Wildcats didn't get another service point the rest of the way.

Blasingame brought the Cavaliers to match point with a rocket shot down the right line, and a long bump by Inskeep drifted just over the back line under the watchful eye of two Coldwater defenders for the final point.

"We had a little different matchup tonight than we were expecting, I think they've changed some things," said Garman, who said that her team seemed to need six rotations per set to settle in. "It took us a little bit of time to kind of get to know which server was coming at us, recognize the ball off the hand. And then, they have multiple attackers that can put the ball away every time. So it took us a little while to get going on those serve receives, recognizing where their attackers were too."

Jenna Leugers finished with a match-high 15 kills, followed by Etzler and Blasingame with 13. Etzler also notched six aces.

Barhorst led Minster with 12 kills, while Prenger recorded 18 assists and 10 digs. Lyndi Hemmelgarn added five digs.

Coldwater opens as the No. 1 seed in the Kalida district in Division III, facing No. 11 Riverdale at the Palace at 6 p.m. on Monday. Minster, the No. 3 seed in the Wapakoneta district in Division IV, takes on No. 11 Waynesfield Goshen at Wildcat Gymnasium at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

"We talked yesterday about how we knew we weren't winning the MAC tonight, but anything we did tonight was going to give us momentum for next week," Garman said. "It gave us the opportunity to play for a lot of pride. We came in here tonight and took a set off Coldwater, which a lot of teams didn't do this year, so I feel like it gave us a bit of energy, showed us what we can do when we really focus in."