Senecas advance, Warriors suffer 1st defeat

ELIDA – It was a pair of sweeps Thursday in a Division IV regional semifinal doubleheader at Elida. First, Calvert took down Ayersville 25-18, 25-22, 25-12 and in the nightcap Mohawk battled powerful Convoy Crestview but came up short 25-18, 25-19, 25-21.As a result, it will be a rematch of a regional semifinal last season where the Knights (24-2) knocked out the Senecas in a thriller. Thursday, Calvert (25-1) got off to a good start with a 4-0 lead in Set 1 after an Emily Miller kill. Ayersville did battle to take a 10-8 advantage, but the Senecas just steadily began to pull away from there. Calvert's aggressive serving once again was a key as Olivia Miller produced consecutive aces to make it 18-12.Eventually, Calvert's Camryn Shook and Bella Borgio ended the set with back-to-back thunderous kills. ""I'm proud of the way the girls played," Calvert coach Lori Rombach said. "We scouted this team and we had a plan and I think we executed what our plan was. Emily Miller did a great job on the outside. We worked on her getting to certain spots from what we saw their defense were weak at certain spots and I feel like Emily did a great job exploiting that. "Our setters were prepared and put the ball where it needed to be all night."Ayersville senior Taylor Craft did everything she could to keep the Pilots in it as she really heated up with six kills in the second set and back-to-back aces to tie things up at 18, but when Calvert needed it, Shook (2 kills) and Caroline Lanicek (kill, block) finished off the Pilots."(Craft) and (Taylor Waldron) are really good players as one plays in the middle and the other on the outside," Rombach said. "Based on what we scouted, that's what we saw, which was (Craft) getting her fair share of kills, there's no way to shut her down entirely, but we try to do our best to slow her down and not allow one team to beat us. "Their tempo was a little slower, so our block was a little early, so we had a hard time kind of timing it up."Like it did both matches in the district round, Calvert totally put the pedal down in the third set. The Senecas started strong with an 11-1 lead after an Alli Porter kill. Ayersville tried to stay in it, but the mixture of precise serve placement and pin-point sets from Olivia Miller was too much in the end. "Olivia did a great job setting tonight and it was one of her most consistent games I've seen," Rombach said. "And even (Bryn) Dircksen was good tonight. Our passing was where it needed to be, so it made our setter's job a little easier and we just executed really well. "With Olivia serving to zone 1 and then deep, deep, deep and throwing in a short serve … they had a hard time adjusting to that. Our assistant coach did a great job calling the serves and getting them out of system on serve receive. We did a great job of that tonight."Craft finished with 13 kills for the Pilots.Lanicek tallied 12 kills and four blocks for the Senecas, while Emily Miller clubbed 10 kills, Shook ended with eight kills, Porter recorded six kills and 21 digs, Olivia Miller collected six aces, 25 assists and 17 digs, Dircksen dished 18 assists, Cecilia Palm tallied three aces and 12 digs and Bryn Meyer had a pair of blocks. Next up for the Senecas: the rematch Saturday at 2 p.m. back at Elida."I'm beyond grateful for the opportunity for our team to play for a regional championship on Saturday," Rombach said. "Convoy Crestview … it's a very similar team that we played last year. They didn't graduate a lot of players and they have a lot of talent. They are very-well coached. Whoever it is who we face we'll give them our best shot and it'll be a battle."The Warriors (25-1) battled the Knights all match, but just couldn't sustain any momentum throughout. Every time Mohawk's raucous crowd got into the match, Crestview responded with a big kill or a stellar defensive play.Mohawk had leads in the first two sets at certain points, but Crestview always had an answer."We had leads and opportunities, but their offense was just better than our defense. That's what it came down to," Mohawk coach Eric Hoover said. "They have three really good hitters. They were able to go over the top of our block and that really takes away what we're able to do defensively. They did a good job of getting it in that area. That really hurt us. "We had opportunities and good runs, but we couldn't quite get enough stops on defense."Crestview has a lot of firepower offensively, but Thursday when the Knights needed a point it went through senior Cali Gregory. She tallied 15 kills, two aces and two blocks to lead the Knights. "She's a really dynamic player all around and even a setter too, which we haven't really seen anyone that is that much of an offensive threat even when she's setting," Hoover said. "They ran some things a little faster than we've seen on film and it took a little while to adjust, but her and (Myia) Etzler really both hurt us."After the Knights took the opening set, it was crucial for the Warriors to respond and halt their momentum. The Warriors led early and often in the second set. It led 12-11, but then the Knights started to gain confidence taking a 15-12 advantage. Mohawk battled to tie it up at 16, but Crestview pulled away in the end. Mohawk once again battled in the third set, but Crestview led the whole way holding off any run the Warriors would make. "I knew we weren't going to quit. They don't have that in them and haven't done that ever," Hoover said. "They fought to the last point and there's a lot of mental toughness required to get to this level. We had opportunities, but we weren't quite as sharp as we normally are, but couldn't consistently get enough offense going when we needed to."Biz Klopp tallied nine kills and two blocks for Mohawk, while Mia Miller added seven kills and a pair of blocks. Gracie Chester and Allison Russell each served a pair of aces.Even though the season ended for Mohawk, it was surely one of the best seasons in school history."This is one of the best, if not the best we've ever had here at Mohawk," Hoover said. "Certainly the best win percentage. The focus and consistency we had says a lot about the kind of team we had. I've never had a team get along this well, just support each other. "It was an absolute pleasure to coach them this year and even though it's not how we wanted it to end, they'll look back and be proud of what they were able to accomplish."