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Coldwater's Mara Riethman (11) spikes the ball past the block of Celina's Lilly Shreffler.
COLDWATER - Coldwater dominated the first two sets against Celina, but the Bulldogs started to click in the third set and nearly sent the match to a fourth set before the Cavaliers came away with 25-15, 25-6, 26-24 win on Tuesday in a Mercer County volleyball matchup at the Palace.
The win moves Coldwater to 12-3 on the season as Celina goes to 5-10.
The first set started out competitive as the teams tied four times up to 6-all before Coldwater got a sideout, then Audrey Diller served up four straight points to help put Coldwater in front 11-6. Celina was unable to get closer than four the rest of the way.
The second set started with Celina trailing 1-0 before the first serve due to a violation. Mia Knapke then stepped back for the Cavaliers and rattled off seven straight points, serving up two aces and getting two kills with Mara Riethman adding two kills of her own as Coldwater went up 8-0 before the Bulldogs managed a point and a sideout. Celina was able to score a point on its first before Coldwater got the sideout and serve back, allowing Campbell Etzler to serve six straight points, getting an ace and two service winners mixed in with a couple of Celina hiting errors to raise the lead to 15-2. Celina managed four more points before Harlow Heyne served up the final three points.
"It's really important to be aggressive at that service line," said Coldwater coach Nikki Etzler.
"The first set didn't start off real bad (over) the first 12 points or so," said Celina coach Amy Sutter. "Then all of a sudden, we made a bunch of our own errors and we let it affect us mentally."
In the third set, Celina got the serve, scored the opening point and was up 2-1. Coldwater tied the game at 2-all, went up 3-2 and held short leads before working the lead to 19-12 on an Ella Werling kill.
Celina's Sidney Jenkins (7) gets the ball past Coldwater's Keria Knapke.
The Bulldogs worked their way back. Sidney Jenkins served up three points to get Celina within three at 20-17. A Werling kill gave Coldwater match point at 24-22, but a long spike tied the set at 24-all.
"We got a little hesitant on our side," said coach Etzler. "We ran a couple of offensive routes we don't normally run and hit the ball out of bounds."
Celina, though, was unable to capitalize as Heyne got the kill to give Coldwater match point at 25-24, then Heyne struck again for her 12th and final kill of the match to end the contest.
"I liked how our girls played two-point games at the end," said coach Etzler.
Coldwater's Campbell Etzler drops to her knees to bump the ball as Brylee Knapke watches.
"We didn't capitalize," said Sutter. "We had chances all night long and we didn't capitalize."
Riethman added 11 kills for Coldwater with Campbell Etzler adding seven kills.
McKenna Lonsway finished with seven kills for Celina. Avery Niekamp had seven digs and two aces.
The teams return to league play on Thursday. Coldwater hosts Parkway in Midwest Athletic Conference play while Celina travels to Elida in Western Buckeye League action.
