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Coldwater's Madison Wendel watches her shot go past Paulding's Lucy Breier in a Division III sectional final at the Palace on Wednesday.
COLDWATER - Top-seeded Coldwater advanced to the Division III volleyball district semifinals, while Midwest Athletic Conference rival Parkway bowed out in the sectional final Wednesday night.
The Cavaliers swept Paulding 25-9, 25-10, 25-8 in the opening match, while Parkway fell 25-17, 25-16, 26-24 in the nightcap at the Palace.
Coldwater (23-1) will take on Ottawa-Glandorf (12-12) at Kalida next Monday at 6 p.m.
Parkway's Brittyn Bruns dives to save a shot against Ottawa-Glandorf as Adria Miller looks on.
Slow starts put the Panthers behind in the first two sets, but they came out firing in the third.
The third set featured 15 ties and eight lead changes, and Colbie Smith and Paige Stephenson got kills to even it at 18 before Marly Buddelmeyer's shot went into the net to put Parkway (12-11) ahead. Brittyn Bruns added two kills in the next three points, and three more Titans hitting errors pushed the Panthers to set point.
"As the match went along, we did get some more block touches, defense was getting some balls back to frustrate them a little bit," Parkway coach Jordan Henkle said. "Just got to stay the course sometimes with that. We don't have a style of play where we're just going to go blow them off the floor with our offense. We're answering a lot with our defense, and I thought we got a lot of touches, got as many digs as possible."
Bruns' next shot went long, the officials called a catch off a blocking error to make it 24-23, and Sienna Fry fired a kill to the back right to tie it up for the last time.
Ella White took a shot that glanced off Cami Langenkamp and fell to make it 25-24 O-G, and after Emmery Temple dug out a shot, the Panthers were called for a double-hit setting the ball to finish the set and the sweep.
"At the end, we couldn't quite do it, but I think that's a good learning experience for the girls, that you've got to play point 1 to 25 the same," Henkle said. "You can't let up at any point in time. I don't think we did, I just think they cleaned some things up, and we, maybe, weren't quite as clean there the last couple."
The Titans opened the first set 5-0, and though the Panthers cut it to two four separate times, they weren't able to erase the deficit. They were able to keep about five points back until late, when Katie Kaufman and Buddelmeyer got kills to make it 23-16 and Bryn Schoenleben's last shot just missed the left corner to give O-G the first set.
A hitting error gave Parkway the first point of the second, but the Titans answered with another five-point run behind Grace Kahle's serving, and again the Panthers never fully recovered. Smith spiked an errant serve receive to cut the deficit to two, but White answered with back-to-back kills, and when Bruns fired a kill to make it 11-8, Kaufman and Addy Bellman blocked her next shot, and Fry and Kaitlyn Kimmel got kills to open up the lead again.
Parkway didn't get closer than five the rest of the way.
"I thought O-G played a really nice match," Henkle said. "They were aggressive at the net, they served aggressive tonight, kept a lot of those serves in. We were scrambling a lot."
Bruns led the Panthers with nine kills. Stephenson, the lone senior, had 14 assists, and Temple recorded 12 digs.
Coldwater's Keira Knapke takes a shot in the Division III sectional final against Paulding at the Palace on Wednesday.
The Cavaliers put on a clinic, steadily pulling away in all three sets and keeping Paulding in check throughout.
"So excited to get a win," Coldwater coach Nikki Etzler said. "To get sectional, that feels great, to be able to do that and advance."
Paulding (4-19) kept within a point early in the first set, but Mia Knapke padded the Coldwater lead with a four-point service run that made it 11-6, and Morgan Blasingame kicked off a five-point run with an ace. Madison Wendel blocked a shot to stretch the lead to 10, and MAC Co-Player of the Year Spencer Etzler served up the final four points.
Mia Knapke got the serve to start the second and led the Cavaliers on a 9-0 opening run that included two kills and a block by Blasingame.
Paulding got its only three-point run of the night midway through the set to cut the deficit to 13-7, but Wendel stopped the run with a block and served up two more points to restore the lead. Keira Knapke put it out of reach with an eight-point service run, and after two serves into the net, Etzler fired a shot off the block that ricocheted into the right antenna to put Coldwater up 2-0 in the match.
Blasingame served up a 5-0 lead in the third, and the Cavaliers kept Paulding from getting closer than four the whole set. Etzler got back-to-back kills to start a four-point service run, and Wendel added two aces to stretch the lead to 13-3.
Blasingame added three kills down the stretch, and Wendel scored four of the last five points on three kills and a block. Etzler got a kill to set up match point, and Wendel spiked a shot in the middle to close out the win.
"I get a little bit teary, because those girls have been in our program so long," coach Etzler said of seniors Wendel, Rachel Schroyer and Abigail Schwieterman. "Gosh, it seems like they were just managers, and to see them tonight in this atmosphere, it just chokes me up. This is their last home match, but hopefully more to come on the road."
Wendel finished with 13 kills, three aces and three blocks, while Etzler and Blasingame had 10 kills apiece. Etzler added 15 digs and Mia Knapke made 31 assists.
