Senecas edge D-I St. Ursula in 5, get to 18-0

BOWLING GREEN – Calvert's seniors had never experienced a five-set win. Until Wednesday. The Senecas faced its toughest competition of the season thus far against Division I, No. 17 Toledo St. Ursula. Division IV, No. 3 Calvert battled through adversity to top the Arrows 25-27, 25-22, 23-25, 25-23, 15-12 at Bowling Green State University's Stroh Center. "It is definitely tiring on us because we're not used to going five sets," said Calvert senior setter Olivia Miller, who registered a season-high 47 assists in the win. Her career-high is 53 assists last season in a loss to Crestview. "We prepare for it. We don't have a lot of fifth sets. In practice, we do conditioning to prepare for this." Caroline Lanicek, Alli Porter, Camryn Shook, Miller and Cecilia Palm were just seventh-graders when Calvert defeated New Bremen to win the 2018 Division IV state championship. That was the last time the Senecas won a match in five sets before Wednesday. The opportunities are few and far between with how dominating Calvert is. Still, it could help the Senecas later down the road this season. "The girls just finished," Calvert coach Lori Rombach said. "That's what it came down to. We made a couple changes from how we started the match to how we finished the match - nothing we thought we were going to do. "When we see what's working and what's not working, we just have to think on our feet and make some changes." It wasn't until midway through Set 5 that Calvert (18-0) seized control. St. Ursula (12-7) led 3-2 early before three straight points - kills by Bryn Meyer and Shook and an ace by Claire Schoenberger - gave the Senecas a 5-3 lead. The Arrows kept swinging and tied the set at 5 and 6. Calvert pushed ahead after a service error by St. Ursula and ace by Palm, but St. Ursula went up 9-8 on back-to-back kills from Erynn Moloney. That was the last time the Arrows led though as an ace by Miller and block by Lanicek helped Calvert win four straight points and go up 12-9. The Arrows didn't stop and drew within 12-11 on two more kills by Moloney. Lanicek's block pushed the margin back to two, but Moloney's 28th kill of the match kept the Arrows within a point. But, Calvert won the final two points of the match including Shook's team-high - and season-high - 15th kill to end it. The Senecas won all 49 sets they played entering the match. Just one set - Sept. 6 at Old Fort - had a team even reached 20 points in a set."We haven't been in a situation this season to be in those positions," Rombach said. "Kate Coleman ran out of sets tonight going into the fifth set. We had to improvise and we did it." The Senecas had to come from behind for what felt like all night. Calvert trailed two sets to one entering Set 4. With such a high-quality match between teams with huge postseason aspirations, neither was really able to make a big run. Calvert led 7-6 early in the fourth set, but kills by Olivia Batch and Mia Hasty helped St. Ursula go up 10-7. The Senecas played from behind for most of the set, really being on the brink of defeat. It wasn't until late in the set when Calvert seized momentum to push the match to a deciding fifth set. The Senecas tied the set at 13, 14, and 16, but couldn't jump ahead. Later, three straight points by Calvert again tied the set at 21. It was also tied at 22 and 23 before Porter drilled a kill and Coleman - a freshman - served up an ace to win Set 4 for Calvert. "St. Ursula is a great program and great team," Rombach said. "They're always good. They always play us well. We saw them in the preseason and they're a different team now than they were in the preseason. But, we are too." St. Ursula jumped on the Senecas early in Set 1 with a leads of 6-1 and 7-2. Calvert settled in and played better as the set went on. The Senecas used a 8-1 sprint to open a 10-8 lead and force a St. Ursula timeout. The Arrows battled back, going up 13-11 after a kill by Molly Malone. Calvert roared back with the next six points to open its biggest lead of the set. St. Ursula chipped away at the lead and tied the set at 18. The Senecas were undeterred and pushed ahead 23-20 after a kill by Shook. St. Ursula was far from rattled as it won four straight points to bring up a set point. Shook's block fended it off and subsequent kill gave Calvert set point. The Arrows finished strong though as Malone and Moloney each smacked kills and a hitting error by Calvert put St. Ursula up 1-0. "They finished and we didn't," Rombach said. "We were sitting on our heels a little bit. We were not being the aggressor and were trying to make things happen from what they were giving us." Not wanting to get down 2-0, the Senecas responded in Set 2. Of course it didn't come easy against St. Ursula, but Calvert prevailed. The Senecas used a run of five straight points to go up 7-4 early in the set and only trailed once the rest of the way. The set was played close as Calvert's biggest lead was just three points.St. Ursula was able to close the gap and even go up 18-17 briefly after kills by Hasty and Moloney, but Calvert got back-to-back kills by Lanicek and a block by Meyer to retake the lead.The Arrows bounced back and tied the set at 22, but Shook smacked a pair of kills to even the match at a set apiece. "Never in Set 2 did I feel like we were in control," Rombach said. "It could have went either way. In Set 2, we finished. We got to the net and made a couple good plays." St. Ursula was almost able to go wire-to-wire with the lead in Set 3. Calvert's only leads of the set were at 3-2 and 6-5, but the Arrows' tough offense won out in the third set. St. Ursula opened a 13-8 lead, but Calvert rallied to tie the set at 15. It was also tied at 16, but St. Ursula pushed past the Senecas. Kills by Moloney and Lucy Mott put Calvert down 21-18. Calvert drew within one point a couple times, but Olivia Batch smacked a kill to put the Arrows up 2-1. "The mindset after we lose a set is like a first set mentality," Miller said. "If we lose a set, we go into the next set thinking like it is the first set. You have to put the lost set behind you. That's what gives us the mentality to do better." Calvert focused in defensively on Moloney, but she was able to thrust past the Senecas for a big night. Had Calvert not played well defensively, it could have been worse for the Senecas. "Our whole plan was to shut her down running a short shoot set," said Rombach of the game plan. "She might have had 30 kills or whatever it was, but that girl could have had 60 if our team didn't block and get touches on as many balls as they did." Miller added 14 digs and four kills on her big night while Shook had six blocks and five digs. Lanicek tallied 14 kills, 11 digs, and eight blocks, Palm led the defense with a career-high 36 digs, Porter added a career-high 25 digs and seven kills, and Claire Schoenberger finished with 24 digs for the Senecas. Bryn Dircksen registered nine assists and six digs, Meyer finished with six kills and five blocks, Emily Miller tallied eight digs and four kills, and Coleman added five digs. "The fifth set did not feel any different than the third set on any other night," Rombach said. "The girls were just a little bit more tired. We do Set 5 conditioning every day at practice in preparation for having to go to a fifth set. I feel like the girls were in shape and able to finish."