Senecas steamroll Saints, advance to state title match for 3rd straight year

VANDALIA – Gotta hand it to them. The Tuscarawas Central Catholic student section was rowdy. After the "I believe that we will win" chant wrapped up, it was time for state semifinal volleyball action.But that was the last time a peep came from that section of the crowd because of how No. 1 Calvert dominated Thursday night.TCC led 1-0 in the first set, but then quickly fell behind 10-2, 16-2, 20-4 before a Karris Marinis kill capped the opening set in favor of the Senecas as they rolled from there in a 25-7, 25-13, 25-11 victory."Our first attack our serve was aggressive tonight and the girls came ready to play tonight," Calvert coach Lori Rombach said after her team advanced to take on Monroeville (25-2) Saturday at the Nutter Center at 4 p.m. Saturday. "We had a few athletes struggling a little bit with their serving, so it was perfect timing for them gain some confidence going into Saturday's game. We have some great servers and tonight they served very well."The serving set the tone for Calvert (28-0), but it was also the consistency of the outside hitters like Emily Miller, Bella Borgio and Megan Rombach that kept attacking as TCC (22-6) had no answers."Megan had a really great game, and Bryn (Dircksen) was great distributing the ball, we tried to go away from (Khloe Trivoli), and Emily is just Emily … someone you can always trust and rely on," Coach Rombach said. "She's such a great athlete and we're gonna miss her after this year. All of our attackers did a good job of terminating."The Senecas are no stranger to the big stage and it was evident as they handled business from the first serve. After a dominating first set, TCC stayed with Calvert for a little in the second set, trailing just 7-6 before the Senecas started to put some runs together as Borgio slammed down two kills and served an ace and Miller smashed three straight kills to give Calvert a 19-10 advantage.That kind of start in a state semifinal is huge, even for an experience team like the Senecas."It was amazing … I don't really know how to explain it, but it was like a weight lifted off of my shoulders and that I can breath again," Miller said of the start. "I'm just happy I get to experience this ride one last time with my friends here, my family here … my sister (Hannah) is coming down tomorrow too, so it's great having everyone down here and our fans because we feed off their energy. This has been an amazing experience."After Borgio capped the second set with a kill, the Senecas raced out to a commanding 10-2 advantage in the third set, and controlled things throughout. Borgio led the attack with 12 kills and nine digs for the Senecas, while Emily Miller produced 11 kills, Rombach (2 blocks) and Marinis each hammered five kills, Hope Waire slammed eight kills and a pair of blocks, Dircksen tallied 34 assists, three aces and four digs, Claire Schoenberger finished with four aces and 13 digs, Gracie Miller added three aces and four digs and Kate Coleman ended with four digs.The sights are now set on Saturday and the Eagles, which the Senecas got a good look at in the first semifinal Thursday."They're well coached, I mean Kendra (Snook) is a great coach and she'll have them prepared and ready to play," Rombach said. "We know that and they're the type of team that plays everything out and play until the final point is earned in each set, no doubt about it. "They're scrappy and have three hitters in the front row every time, so it'll be a little different to defend and their setters do a great job spreading things around, so we'll have our work cut out for us. But we'll have our girls ready to go and make them earn every point they get." Finishing as runner-up two straight seasons has been difficult for the high-powered Senecas, but there is surely some optimism throughout the squad that this is the year to change that recent history."There's not much to say, hopefully the third time is the charm," Emily Miller said. "We fell short both times … we were right there, but this year we're confident and I won't let it happen again. We've been so close both times and I won't let that happen again."