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The Adena Warriors are the lone SVC volleyball team left in the post season following their Division 3 District title sweep of Wheelersburg. Southeastern’s Panthers fell shy of that same title, falling in a five-set thriller to Nelsonville York.
ADENA 3, WHEELERSBURG 0 (25-20, 25-6, 25-22)
The (18-7) Warriors came flying out of the gate in Set 1, with a lead as large as 10 points. With the Set 1 finish in sight with a 21-11 lead, (22-3) Wheelersburg came storming back to cut Adena’s lead to 24-20, before the Warriors closed with a 25-20 victory.
Set 2 was a Warrior wipe-out, as they ran away with a lop-sided 25-6 victory and a (2-0) match lead.
The Pirates bounced back in Set 3, taking an early lead of 5-1 and led as late as 9-6. That’s when Adena took-off on a 6-0 run for a 12-9 advantage. The Warriors were able to build leads of up to 4 points after this, but each time the Pirates came battling back and took the 21-20 lead, forcing the Warriors to call a time out. Coming out of the break, Adena closed on a 5-1 run for the 25-22 Set win and the district title.
Katie Burns and Eva Kruger led Adena with 11 kills apiece, Brinlee Preston caught fire after a slow start to end with 8 kills. The Warriors had 7 serving aces for the match. Brooke Bossert led the defense with 24 digs, Brenna Bossert 14, and Haley Howard 13 digs and Kamryn Sowers with 8. Grace Townsend dished out 31 assists. Sowers had 5 of Adena’s 9 serving aces.
Wheelersburg was led by Gracie Perkins with 12 kills, while Grace Woodard and Alyssa Mullins each added 6 kills.
The Warriors claim their 37th volleyball district crown in school history, 31 under Coach Laura Smith. Adena will play in the Logan Regional Thursday, November 2nd against South Webster, who defeated Meigs (25-18, 25-15, 25-10) in the last district title match at Waverly High School.
NELSONVILLE YORK 3, SOUTHEASTERN 2 (24-26, 23-25, 25-23, 25-23, 20-18)
The (20-5) Southeastern Panthers were hoping to add their name to the “Sweet 16” roster, but fell shy in a five set heart-breaker to (23-2) Nelsonville York.
The match contained tremendous statistical performances by several players, and also included a total of 35 ace serves between the two teams.
The Panthers see-sawed back and forth in Set 1, but managed to create leads of up to six points. Late in Set 1, Southeastern held leads of 21-17 and 23-19, only to see the Buckeyes of Nelsonville York forge a tie at 24-24. The Panthers would score the final points for an opening 26-24 win. SE’s Jozy Lougheed and Morgan Ware had been doing most of the heavy lifting on the front row offense up to this point of the match, along with the help of numerous serving aces.
Set 2 had NY taking off to a big lead of 17-10 and later 21-13. That is when the Panthers kicked it into high gear and rallied for a 25-23 win and a commanding (2-0) lead in the match.
But, the Buckeyes would not quit. They were able to stay close on the scoreboard, and make a late move for a 25-23 win and close the gap to (2-1) with the Set 3 win. Late in that set, front row player Chloe Lehman went down with an ankle injury after having already powered 15 kills. But, she later returned with a taped ankle and was one of the difference makers, along with Kyleigh Warren and Gianna Dixon.
Set 4 was another scoring ping-pong event, with the Panthers leading 18-15 late. Nelsonville York rallied to tie 18-18 and later 19-19. Southeastern seemed to gain the upper hand for a possible match win and district title with a lead of 23-20. But once again, the Bucks fired back with a 5-0 close for the 25-23 victory and forced the fifth and deciding set.
NY took that momentum and built a 4-0 lead and led 10-7. Following a SE timeout, the Panthers scored 5 straight for a 12-10 lead and again seemed to have the upper hand. The Buckeyes might have quoted lee Corso’s “not so fast my friend”, by going on a 3-0 run for a 13-12 lead, forcing another Southeastern timeout. From there, everything went crazy with the scoreboard seeming to have no end to the match. Like a heavy weight prize fight, both teams traded punch for punch with each having match-point opportunities. Southeastern had those at 14-13 and later 18-17. Nelsonville York had even more such chances at 15-14, 16-15, and 17-16 only to see either an attack or serving error of their own, or a Panthers kill. Tied at 18-18, NY would score the final two points for a 20-18 victory and the district title.
In the loss, Southeastern was led by SVC Player of the Year Jozy Lougheed with 25 kills. Morgan Ware added 13 kills. Braylee Rebman added 7 kills. In the match, setter Chloe Wills picked up her 1,000th career assist.
Nelsonville York was led by Chloe Lehman’s 27 kills, Kyleigh Warren blasted 25 and Gianna Dixon added 10 kills for the match.
As mentioned earlier, there were an “eye-popping” 35 serving aces for the match, with 18 coming from Nelsonville York and 17 from Southeastern.
The Buckeyes will advance to the Logan regional Thursday against defending regional champ Meadowbrook.
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