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Mentor Lake Catholic's Hannah Pattie beats St. Henry's Morgan Baumer to a shot at the net to make it 23-21 in the first set of the Division III state semifinals on Thursday at Wright State University's Ervin J. Nutter Center.
FAIRBORN - The St. Henry volleyball team had lost just one set over its past 10 matches going into the Division III state semifinals, but it ran into a juggernaut on Wednesday.
Defending champion Mentor Lake Catholic held off the Redskins late in set one and staved off a desperate rally in the third for a 25-22, 25-14, 25-20 win at the Ervin J. Nutter Center at Wright State.
St. Henry's season ends at 24-4. Lake Catholic (28-0) will play Cincinnati Archbishop McNicholas in the state final on Saturday.
"Lake Catholic's a great team, they're very well-rounded, they run a quick offense," St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck said. "We came in, and we were ready. These girls were ready, and they fought and fought."
Aided by Cougars errors, the Redskins kept pace most of the first set, which ended with 12 ties and five lead changes. They led 9-7 before Morgan Baumer's shot to the back right went long, and Lake Catholic quickly evened it up again.
"It's familiar to all of us up here, it being our third year in a row," Lake Catholic coach Kara Oster said, joined by four seniors at the postgame press conference. "There's a sense of pressure because this year it's us, it's supposed to be us, but these girls don't really crack under pressure. I think I get more nervous than them.
"We looked a little iffy to start, but I think that's just natural in a big setting - I think they looked a little nervous too," she went on. "But these girls are finishers, and they sure did that."
Katie Sowko and Chloe Gels traded two kills apiece to tie the set at 12, but Lake Catholic got the next point to kick off a five-point service run by Natalya Bergant. The Redskins were called twice for being in the net, and Bergant fired two aces before Molly Wendel got a kill through the block to get back within four.
Gels served three points, including an ace, and Olivia Gast came through with back-to-back aces in a four-point run that put St. Henry up 19-18. But Hannah Pattie answered with a kill off the block, Ellie Fullenkamp's next shot went into the net, and the Cougars pulled ahead 22-19.
St. Henry senior Lydia Werling had 22 assists in the state semifinal.
A service error and a kill by Lydia Werling got the Redskins back within one, but Pattie beat Baumer in a battle at the net for an errant serve receive. Baumer got a kill off the block to make it 23-22, but Sowko answered with a shot down the right line, then served just barely into the back row, where Baumer's diving receive sailed over the net and wide right to close out the set.
"I thought Game 1 was really important," Rosenbeck said. "I wish we could've found a way to finish out Game 1. I think that would've been a little bit different story for the day. But these girls fought from the beginning to the end, and I'm proud of them."
"Crucial, definitely, because we weren't playing our best," Oster said of the first-set win.
The Redskins never got a lead in the final two sets.
Bergant blocked a shot by Baumer to start the second, and the Redskins stumbled with a series of errors. Werling was called for a double-hit off the serve receive, the next shot went into the net, and St. Henry was called for a net violation.
After Fullenkamp got a sideout to get the point back, Sowko served three aces to stretch the lead to 8-1, and the Redskins never recovered.
A St. Henry receiving error extended the Lake Catholic lead to 10 at 18-8, and though the Redskins got two points back at set point, the deficit was far too large. Sowko ended it with a shot to the back middle.
"We came out a little flat in Game 2 and we made some errors, but we continued to fight," Rosenbeck said. "We fought back a little bit in Game 2, and I thought that gave us some momentum into Game 3."
Lake Catholic set the pace early in the third, finding ways to win long volleys and keep St. Henry from putting together a run. At 2-1, the Redskins blocked four Cougars shots, but couldn't finish off the point before being whistled for being in the net, a call that drew boos from the St. Henry-heavy crowd.
"We've gotten a ton better at our blocking throughout the season," Rosenbeck said. "They were covering everything and getting it back, but our girls kept fighting too. They're a great defensive team."
Baumer notched an ace to tie it at 7, as Mia Schaefer tried to twist out of the way of her serve to the back left and deflected the ball out of bounds, but a shot out of bounds put Lake Catholic ahead again. Bergant, Ava Budrys Rini and Claire Duricky then got six kills to make it 15-8 and push St. Henry to the brink.
St. Henry's Karlee Buschur sends a shot past Mentor Lake Catholic blocker Hannah Pattie on Thursday.
But the Redskins charged back. Karlee Buschur tipped a shot to the right line to stop the run, and after four Lake Catholic hitting errors, Gels finished off a long point with a kill off the block that made it 15-14.
"They have a couple bigger girls, which is always an interesting matchup," Oster said. "We don't face a ton of (size) throughout our season. And then they're also scrappy - some of those volleys today were just unreal.
"Luckily we came out on top on almost every big volley, but we kind of came in thinking this would almost be a state championship, in a sense," she continued. "They're a team that's been doing well all season. When they beat Coldwater, we knew they'd probably be the team to beat coming here. So we knew it would be a fight."
Bergant split Baumer and Werling with a kill off the serve receive, and after Karlee Buschur blocked a shot by Soph Newland to tie it for the last time at 16, the Cougars got four of the next five points to go up 20-17.
After a long serve got St. Henry within two at 22-20, Ahnna Bergant took a shot across the court that sailed out of bounds and appeared to cut the deficit to one, but the down referee called a tip, forcing Rosenbeck to call timeout after a futile attempt to argue the call.
Pattie's next shot also went out and was also ruled a tip to push the Cougars to match point, and Karlee Buschur's attempt at a tip shot went into the net to finish it off.
"It was a memorable season, it being our senior year and being able to come back here after we were able to come here our sophomore year," Gels said. "I just wish it would've ended differently."
St. Henry's Chloe Gels sprints to try to save a shot against Mentor Lake Catholic on Thursday.
Gels led the Redskins with 11 kills, Werling made 22 assists and libero Rya Buschur recorded nine digs with Baumer adding eight. Baumer and Gast each had two of St. Henry's five aces.
Sowko had 11 kills and four aces for the Cougars, who tied the state tournament record with 12 aces in a match that featured tough serves from both teams. All 12 came in the first two sets.
Pattie added 35 assists.
St. Henry had a large and vocal following. The Redskins' section was filled to the back row with around a thousand people, versus a few dozen for Lake Catholic.
"Our community support has been so great this whole tournament, the whole season," Rosenbeck said, fighting back tears for the only time in her press conference. "You see it, they're so proud of these girls, and they deserve to be proud of these girls. We're just proud to be Redskins, and I'm so proud to be able to come here.
"I wish we could've had a different outcome for them, but I know when we go back to St. Henry, they'll be just as proud of us," she went on. "Everybody in our town is awesome, and being part of St. Henry is something special."
