Thursday, November 3rd, 2022
On to the finals
New Bremen advances to regional final over Jackson Center
By Gary R. Rasberry
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
New Bremen's Mary Rindler goes up for a spike as Jackson Center's McKinley Reichert (14) and Paige Guey (7) defend during Wednesday's Division IV regional volleyball semifinal at the Thunderdome at Northmont High School.
CLAYTON - Jackson Center scored the first point of each set against New Bremen.
But that was all the Cardinals would allow as they advanced to the Division IV regional volleyball championship match with a 25-15, 25-20, 25-13 win in the semifinals at the Thunderdome at Northmont High School on Wednesday.
New Bremen (25-1) returns to Clayton at 2 p.m. Saturday to face Fort Loramie with a berth to the state tournament at the Nutter Center on the line. The Redskins (21-6) won the rubber match with fellow Shelby County League co-champion Russia 25-15, 25-18, 25-15 in the nightcap. New Bremen won the regular season meeting with Fort Loramie in five sets on Sept. 25.
"They're both really good, well coached and have been here before," said New Bremen coach Diana Kramer about the Shelby County co-champs. "It's going to be a great match."
A Cardinal hitting error allowed Jackson Center (19-8) to score the first point of the first set, but Rianna Paul quickly tied the set with a kill and then Melina Schrader served up four straight points, two on aces, to make it 5-1 Cardinals. The Tigers were unable to get closer than four points the rest of the set as Olivia Heitkamp hammered down eight kills and Mary Rindler added a pair of big blocks. Amelia Dammeyer added two aces of her own during the set.
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Olivia Heitkamp had 18 kills to lead New Bremen in a sweep of Jackson Center.
The pattern continued in the second set, with the Tigers taking the first point, only for the Cardinals to use a big service run to take a healthy lead. This time, it was Abi Powers serving up three straight points thanks to kills by Heitkamp and Rindler to put New Bremen in front 6-2. Later Keira Steininger served up four points in a row to put the Cardinals in front 18-11.
Jackson Center tried to work its way back, using Cardinal hitting errors and a solid service run by Paige Guey to trim the Cardinal lead to 22-20. Kramer took a timeout and Guey sent the next serve out to give the Cardinals a 23-20 lead. A hitting error by the Tigers and a Schrader kill closed out the set.
"We knew we would be in for a dogfight. We prepared for situations like that," said Kramer. "We knew we had to control what we could do. Leading into (the timeout), we may have made three or four mistakes in a row. We just needed to reset and refocus, then keep rolling."
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
New Bremen's Abi Powers serves against Jackson Center in the Division IV regional semifinals at Northmont High School on Wednesday.
Jackson Center refused to concede and took a 2-0 lead to start the third set on two Cardinal hitting errors. The Cardinals tied the set at 2-, 3- and 4-all before a Heitkamp block put the Cardinals in front to stay at 5-4. Amelia Dammeyer scored up three straight points to push it to 11-6, then Schrader applied the big blow with four straight aces to push the lead up to 18-9.
Heitkamp got the kill for match point and Rindler added the finale with a kill of her own.
"I felt like we played a complete match tonight," said Kramer. "In a new atmosphere, I was very proud how the girls came out focused and engaged. We responded to our mistakes after one play. (Jackson Center) never went on a big run."
Heitkamp finished with 18 kills. Schrader had six aces, six kills and 32 assists. Rindler finished with five kills and five blocks.
