2010 Division IV State Semifinals

Lehman Catholic, Tuscarawas Central Catholic advance to Saturday showdown

Sidney Lehman Catholic advanced to the state final with a 25-17, 25-15, 25-18 win over Toledo Christian Thursday. This is Lehman’s seventh appearance at state, and first since 2005 when they won it all. The second ranked 28-1 Cavaliers avenged a season opening loss by upending top ranked Marion Local in the regional final last Saturday.

It was the second time the unrated Eagles have been to state, and they are looking for more in the near future according to Coach Dave Conley. “This time around we’re not satisfied. We’ve got a deep program and we’re trying to earn respect around the state. The team in 2006 graduated everybody. I’d love to bring these two back (Kayla Nagle and Bethany Critchley), but we’ve got the most depth we’ve had ever. So we’re going to keep firing away. We’re going to bang on the door until we knock it down”.

The Eagles roster consists of two seniors, three juniors, six sophomores and four freshmen. (It should be noted that all four teams in the semifinals are rather young.)

Conley also said, however, “You’ve got to give Lehman Catholic a lot of credit. They beat Marion Catholic. They are solid all the way around, their ball control was good, and they put pressure on us. They’ve got a lot of weapons. That’s what good teams do. They put pressure on you and they don’t let up”.

The teams were even on kills, with Lehman having a slight 35-34 advantage. The big differences were ball control where the Cavaliers committed only eight errors to 21 for Toledo Christian, and service aces with Lehman enjoying a 10-1 edge.

Lehman senior outside hitter echoed those statistics with her assessment of what her team did well. “I feel like we served aggressively and we hustled on defense”. Coach Greg Snipes said they knew Toledo Christian wanted to go to their 6’0” senior middle hitter Bethany Critchley. “Our main objective was to take them out of that first pass and force them to go to the outside. And for the most part I thought we made their serve receive move a lot and they struggled with their first pass”.

Toledo Christian scored first and kept a step apace through point trading to 4-all on kills by junior outside Ellen Huffman and middle Bethany Critchley. Then they committed three errors and after an ace by Cavalier freshman libero Erica Paulus, Lehman was up 7-3.

Lehman grew their edge to 10-5, 13-7 and 15-8. And when the Eagles closed to 16-13, Jessica Thobe served up two aces and junior outside Lindsey Spearman, replacing junior Morgan Schmitmeyer who sprained her ankle, pounded two kills to re-up the ante to 21-13.

Asked what she thought about starting, Spearman replied “I was so nervous because I haven’t got that much varsity time. I didn’t want to blow it for the team. But once I got out there I was fine”. Spearman made the most of her opportunity with ten kills, but had someone told her beforehand she would do that in the state tournament, her response would have been “That’s crazy”.

Jessica Thobe ended the game with another kill, after Paulus dove to prevent an Eagle cross-court shot from landing.

Picking up where she left off, Thobe opened the next set with a well placed hit. Critchley tied with a bomb up the middle, but junior Paxton Hatcher and senior Ann Watercutter block killed and setter Andrea Thobe demolished an overpass, and Lehman moved out 7-3 on two more two-point spurts.

Huffman and Nagle each scored for Toledo Christian, but after a service error, Andrea Thobe served up nine points including an ace as Spearman spiked two more kills and blocked for another, and from 17-5 it was a matter of time.

Critchley put Toledo Christian on the board in game three with a liner, and answered a kill by Jessica Thobe with a tip. Following an Eagle hitting error, Thobe spiked three kills and Hatcher demolished an Andrea Thobe quick set. The Cavaliers were up 6-2 and after some point trading they upped their margin to 16-7 on an 8-2 run. Down 19-9, Toledo Christian fought back, led by Nagle who joined sophomore Allie Lindke on a block kill and added two dumps. Eventually, Hatcher scored match point with a termination in the middle.

Although they were out, the Eagles saw positives in the outcome. Nagle explained “We went down playing our hearts out. We had trouble early in the game but near the end we saw a glimmer of hope…I feel like we went out strong”. To which Critchley added “Getting this far has been amazing. I think we shocked each other getting this far. We didn’t get what we wanted but we’re happy with what happened”.

Stats:

Toledo Christian: Kills: Ellen Huffman, Bethany Critchley 11, Kayla Nagle 6; Assists: Nagle 27; Digs: Abby Vinciczky 16, Huffman 13, Alex Kanfeld 12

Lehman Catholic: Jessica Thobe 14, Lindsey Spearman 10; Assists: Andrea Thobe 26; Aces: Erica Paulus 3; Digs: Paulus, Jessica Thobe 14; Blocks: Ellie Waldsmith, Ann Watercutter 3

*********************************************************************************

“I think this one outdid it”.

That was how Tuscarawas Central Catholic Coach Linda Williams responded when asked to compare her team’s 25-23, 25-18, 23-25, 27-29, 18-16 win over Dalton in an emotionally charged hard hitting state semifinal yesterday to last Saturday’s 23-25, 26-24, 25-23, 21-25, 17-15 cliffhanger over Beaver Eastern at the regional.

The teams appeared to be evenly matched, although Central was ranked number four on the final coaches’ poll while the Bulldogs were unranked. Two factors loomed large in favor of Central Catholic.

One was a case of Dalton jitters in game one, which helped the Saints open up leads of 5-0, 9-1 and 15-4, after which the Bulldogs rallied and almost won the game. Dalton setter Ellen Hartmann said afterward “Our first two games we were a little nervous coming in. We’d never been down here before, and we got down early and had to fight our way back”.

The second was 5’8” senior setter/middle hitter Millie Patchan who paced the Saints with 40 kills, including nine in game five. Patchan scored the Saints’ first two points and six of their first ten. And with Dalton on a four point run and Central out of time outs with their lead having dwindled to 24-23, Patchan smoked game point down the left.

Patchan said afterward “Front row is my favorite place to play. When I’m in that front row I know I can put it down. I have confidence in myself and I can place the ball wherever I want”. With the score 17-16 in game five Patchan put down her 40th kill.

Saints freshman setter middle Megan Lawless opened game two with an ace that landed on the back line and Dalton setter Ellen Hartmann tied with a dump. Patchan then traded kills with Dalton 5’11” junior middle Audrey Metzger and 6’0” senior middle Samantha Clark to a 4-all tie. (Metzger had led the rally in game one and would tally 28 kills in the match.)

Central junior Briana Neidig scored the first of two points with a cross-court slam, and served two aces to put her team up 9-5. The Saints, who served nine aces in the second set, four of them landing on the back line, kept on marching from there with runs of 2, 2, 3 and 4 to a 20-9 lead.

Central jumped out 3-0 in set three, with Patchan scoring a kill and block, and upped it to 6-1. Bulldog outside Rachel Knetzer scored six kills as Dalton closed to 8-7. A great pass by Saints sophomore libero Sami Beamer led to another slam by Neidig, Lawless block killed, Neidig aced and freshman outside Tiffany Sunderlin spiked a kill to make it 12-7.

But Dalton tied at 13 on a four point run as Metzger and sophomore lefty outside Carolyn Beatty nailed three kills and Hartmann dished up an ace. Patchan spiked and blocked to keep Central in charge, but Clark and Knetzer led a three point Dalton run to another tie at 19.

Clark answered a kill by Neidig, and Metzger gave Dalton its first lead of the day with a block that ended a long intense volley. She terminated two more volleys as the Bulldogs went up 24-22, and soon after ended the game with a tip that left several Saints sprawled on the floor.

Game four was an 18-tie donnybrook of nine lead changes that mixed great hitting with frustrating errors to keep fans on the edges of their seats. The biggest lead by either team was two.

With the score 22-all Metzger and Patchan traded kills. Then Central served long putting Dalton at game point, but the Bulldogs hit long twice to put Central at match point. Clark retied with a cross-court slam that was dug way out. Central had two more match point opportunities, but when they drove a Dalton overpass out of bounds on the second one, Metzger holed a tip and Clark served a cross-court ace to cinch the win and tie the match.

Central Catholic jumped out 2-0 in the tiebreaker as Patchan spiked off a block. Hartmann scored on a dump that was dug into the pole and Metzger tied with a termination. Patchan answered in kind to spark a four-point run. Dalton would play catch-up from there and would never lead. “It’s never easy playing catch-up” Hartmann would say later.

A net serve ended the run, but Patchan followed with a kill. Central would make three more serving errors, but Dalton could not gain traction. After the second net serve, the Bulldogs hit long when the Saints were out of system after a serve by defensive specialist Annie Yoder, and after the third Patchan spiked another kill.

Dalton did come back, however, getting three straight to make it 12-10, and three more to tie at 14. The Bulldogs would tie twice more, but after a net serve Patchan put the match on ice with a smash off the block.

The Bulldogs did not get down after losing the first two sets. Last month they rallied from two games down last month to beat Smithville, ending the Smithies Wayne County Athletic League 26-match win streak. In light of that, Clark said “I had confidence. I knew we could win the last three”.

Dalton Coach Shanna Hildebrandt said her team focused better on defensive control after game two and on “covering the tips and being more disciplined” adding that they were out of position a lot in the first two sets. But she noted “We made too many unforced errors in the fifth game”.

“Volleyball is a momentum game”, said Williams in assessing Central’s ability to prevail. “I thought playing together was our key, and we served aggressive…even though we missed some in our final set I think that was the key to our game. We all played together as a family, that’s what we’ve been stressing especially at tournament time and that’s why we are here as winners”.

Match Notes:

1) Dalton is the second team in two years from the Wayne County Athletic League to reach the final four. Division III Smithville did it in 2009.

2) The kill leaders were very accurate today. Molly Patchan hit a stellar .363 on 91 attempts, and Metzger averaged .344 on 64 tries.

3) Central Coach Linda Williams cited injured senior outside Ali Seymore for being very supportive to the team. Getting to the state final has been Seymour’s dream since she was little. Briana Neidig has taken over Seymour’s spot at left side and start freshman Anna Thompson in Neidig’s spot (Central starts three frosh!). Williams also cited Madison Bonamico, who led the Saints and their area (all divisions) this year in service points. She made only one service error yesterday.

4) Williams felt being at state before really helped. “We knew what to expect. Not all the girls were here but the young girls stepped it up. Millie kept them up. She’s a great captain and a great leader and that was a big part of why they played so well”.
Patchan agreed, “We had a good feeling coming in today. Last year when we walked into that arena, everyone was like, wow! This is a big place, there’s no walls, it’s wide open. This year it’s more like ‘you know what, court’s same size, net’s just as high, it doesn’t look that big’. It’s really not as big as we thought. That’s the attitude we carried in today, and we passed it on to the younger girls”.

5) Dalton middle Samantha Clark said “It’s just amazing that we have that many people that will drive this far for us. I wish we could have gone the entire way”.

Stats:

Dalton: Kills: Audrey Metzger 28, Samantha Clark 15, Rachel Knetzer 9, Ellen Hartmann 5; Assists: Hartmann 49; Aces: Knetzer 4, Clark 3; Digs: Knetzer 28, Marlow Beatty 23, Hartmann 22, Amber Yoder 18, Carolyn Beatty 14; Blocks: Hartmann, Metzger 3

Tuscarawas Central Catholic: Kills: Millie Patchan 40, Briana Neidig 12, Megan Lawless 8, Tiffany Sunderlin 7; Assists: Lawless 40, Patchan 19; Aces: Neidig 4, Lawless 3; Digs: Neidig 26, Lawless 20, Lesley Teater 16, Sami Beamer 15, Patchan 11, Madison Bonamico 10; Blocks: Patchan 5, Anna Thompson 3