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Coldwater's Spencer Etzler (13) gets the spike past the blocks of St. Henry's Ellie Fullenkamp (5) and Lauren Thieman (10) during the Division VI district volleyball final at Van Wert.
VAN WERT - Note to the other 15 teams in Division VI still playing volleyball: top-ranked and undefeated Coldwater is going to be very hard to beat.
After dropping the first two sets Wednesday night at Van Wert, second-ranked St. Henry exposed a crack in the Cavaliers' invincibility by winning the third set, which marked only the second time this season - in 71 tries - that Coldwater has lost a set.
The setback seemed to make the Cavs angry as they roared back in the fourth and claimed a district title with a 25-16, 25-15, 20-25, 25-10 victory over Midwest Athletic Conference rival St. Henry.
Coldwater (25-0) advances to the Northmont regional and will face the winner of Saturday's Granville district final between Centerburg and Deleware Christian in the semifinals next Thursday at 5 p.m.
The Cavs took control of each of the first two sets early and did not allow the Redskins any room for a run. After an 8-8 start, a service ace by Brylee Knapke contributed to a 6-1 Coldwater run that put the Cavaliers up 14-9 in the opening set, and forced a St. Henry timeout.
Staying aggressive behind the service line, Coldwater expanded its lead, including a 5-1 run to close things out. The Cavs had three aces in the opening set while Morgan Blasingame registered six kills.
The second set followed a similar script as the first. The Cavs put together a couple of runs late, pulling away at the end.
"Coldwater is a very good team. They served super aggressive and we couldn't get into system and couldn't get the ball to our middle early in the game," St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck said.
"The number one thing that we wanted to focus on was being aggressive," St. Henry coach Nikki Etzler countered. "The girls bought into that, and they really wanted to attack. If we're serving well we can get them out of system and get an advantage."
With their backs against the wall the Redskins responded by taking the third set. The key for St. Henry was not allowing the Cavaliers to score any more than three points in a row.
St. Henry's Morgan Baumer (3) tries to put the ball past Coldwater's Mia Knapke.
With the set tied at 16-16, the Redskins got kills from Karlee Buschur and Morgan Baumer along with an ace by Lauren Thieman to take a 20-16 lead. St. Henry maintained the four-point spread down the stretch as Ellie Fullenkamp iced the cake with a cross-court kill and the 25-20 win.
"We have heart and we have a really, really good team," Rosenbeck said. "I was proud of the way we fought back and for our seniors who have been leaders all season."
A very long volley started the fourth set, which ended with a Karlee Buschur kill and a 1-0 St. Henry lead. But Coldwater scored 12 of the next 13 points and it seemed like the fourth set was over before it started. The Cavs cruised to the finish line as Blasingame put an exclamation mark on the match with her 25th kill of the night.
"They got going, we made some errors and we didn't play the game we needed to," Rosenbeck said. "We needed to play an A-plus game and we didn't."
Coldwater's Olivia Broering (9) blocks the hit of St. Henry's Molly Wendel during Wednesday's Division VI district final at Van Wert.
After fighting through a district that featured five teams that had been ranked in the top 10 at various times this season, the district runner-up trophy wasn't much of a consolation for Rosenbeck, whose team finished with a 20-5 record.
"The thing that's a shame is that this game happened here tonight at this level," she said. "This is a Northwest District problem. The No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the state should not have to play each other in the district. And it can be fixed."
Unable to change the circumstances of district assignments, Etzler took the challenge head-on.
"Iron sharpens iron," she said. "We can sit back and complain about how the district chooses to assign us, or we could say to ourselves, 'We're really going to attack this with confidence, and pursue to be the best we can be.' We've been challenged by the best in our league and in the tournament, and we hope that can catapult us through the tournament. I think that's our mindset."
"We can only control what we can control," Etzler continued. "In the future we hope that they collectively come together and start re-thinking how they do things. Will we push for that? Absolutely."
In the meantime the Cavaliers have to guard against thinking they just won the state championship.
"Our focus all season has been to play one point at a time and not look ahead and not look behind," Etzler said. "So we're going to celebrate tonight because we're really excited about this victory against a very good team, but tomorrow we're going to get back in the gym and refocus on one point at a time with our next opposition."
