Calvert sweeps OF for 3rd time, wins 4th straight district title

FOSTORIA — Calvert finished off Thursday's Division IV district final at Fostoria High School in emphatic fashion.The Senecas were facing Old Fort for a third time this season and closed out the ninth set the teams played by keeping the Stockaders in single digits for the first time.Behind 10 kills from Camryn Shook, top-seeded Calvert won its fourth district championship in a row, defeating third-seeded Old Fort 25-13, 25-14, 25-8."The girls came ready to play," Calvert coach Lori Rombach said. "They were excited to play. We were going to prepare ourselves to play this team as if it is the first time we played them. The girls took that to heart."The Senecas improve to 22-3 overall and advance to next Thursday's regional semifinal at Elida Fieldhouse. Calvert will take on Hilltop (20-5) in the night's second semifinal."We worked on looking where their holes are and where their deficiencies are and how we have to exploit it," Rombach said. "I am so proud of the way they came out and played. I am so proud of their composure."The closest the Stockaders (19-6) came the whole night was in the first set when it was 5-5 early. From there, the Senecas won seven straight points that included back-to-back kills from Kate Laney. After a service error stopped the run, Old Fort got back within 13-9, but the next six points went to Calvert.The Stockaders could never get much offense going and a block by Kate Rombach and kill by Shook gave the Senecas set point. A hitting error on Old Fort put Calvert up 1-0."I think in the first set, we had them out of system as much as we wanted," OF coach Erin Reed said. "I think our defense picked up a lot of balls. In the end, we needed to execute a few more times to stay in the set."The momentum carried for the Senecas into the second set, as Shook and Rombach each tallied kills en route to a 6-1 lead. Old Fort stayed within four points at 9-5, but Calvert continued to win points in bunches.Shook's kill made it 16-9 and the Senecas added the next three points for a 20-9 edge. Caroline Lanicek smacked a kill, and two hitting errors on Old Fort gave Calvert a stranglehold on the match."We had to get a touch on (Grace) Wasserman's hits and that is what our block did," coach Rombach said. "The defense behind them picked it up. They go to Grace a lot and it makes our job a little easier because we can release because we know the ball is going to her."The Senecas thrived even more to put the match away as Rombach played her best set of the night. The senior smacked consecutive kills to put Calvert up 6-1 in the final set. After Wasserman tallied a kill for the Stockaders, Shook put down a kill, Rombach added a kill, and Laney registered a block to make it 9-2.Out of an Old Fort timeout, a block and two more kills from Rombach ballooned the lead to 12-2. Later, a kill from Rombach maintained the double-digit lead for the Senecas at 15-5. Calvert won six points in a row for a 22-6 advantage. Rombach put down her seventh kill of the night for match point and a hitting error on the Stockaders gave Calvert the comfortable win."We had to switch up a couple different things," coach Rombach said of a third meeting with Old Fort. "They put their hitters on the outside and with our big blocks in the middle, we would swing them on their right side for a couple times just to try to slow them down."Two nights after a career-high 28 kills in a five-set win over Hopewell-Loudon, Wasserman was kept to just seven kills on the night. However, her 461 kills this season are the most in an individual season at Old Fort and her 1,184 kills in her career is most-ever for the Stockaders."I am not an easy person and she definitely decided that she was going to buy into what I was giving," an emotional Reed said. "She took it and ran with it starting last year. I think her freshman year she started and had (185) kills. To go from (185) on a varsity floor to almost 500 in a season, she thrived in the environment we have made."Wilkinson, who missed Calvert's win over Old Fort in Tiffin on Sept. 23, led the Stockaders with nine kills."Previous times, including last year, we gave made some adjustments," Reed said. "So far, we hadn't had all of our players 100 percent healthy until the last match we played. I think that was the adjustment — actually having everyone ready to play."AJ Hemminger paced the Senecas' defense with 15 digs. The feisty, but energetic libero has been a staple of the Calvert defense for years."We really wanted to win tonight," Hemminger said. "Being a senior this year, we want to end with the best, but we are taking it one match at a time. We came out tonight gunning for a win."Emma White tallied 33 assists to give her 2,964 career assists — seventh-most in state history. She added 11 digs while Hannah Miller finished with 12 digs and eight kills. Rombach added 10 digs and Lanicek had five kills for the Senecas.