St. Ursula, Northview win in D-I district volleyball semis
Oct. 26—MILLBURY — Three Rivers Athletic Conference champion St. Ursula will meet Northern Lakes League runner-up Northview in the Division I volleyball district final at Lake on Wednesday.
Both teams got there by taking care of business against league foes in three sets on Monday night, St. Ursula's Arrows over Clay, 25-10, 25-20, 25-12, and Northview's Wildcats over Anthony Wayne, 25-22, 25-22, 25-21.
In the first semifinal, perennial power St. Ursula (15-9) came in with more losses on its ledger than usual with a young team that appears to be coming together at the right time after navigating a tough nonleague schedule.
"Our sense of urgency is something I definitely liked," Arrows coach Sydney Yaggi said. "That's something we focused on in practice because the district semifinals and finals are just two days apart."
The Arrows jumped out to a quick 9-1 lead in the first set against Clay (14-11), extended it to a commanding 18-4 on a kill by junior Maggie Gabel, and cruised to the win.
St. Ursula used a balanced offensive attack led by sophomore Erynn Moloney's 10 kills. Gabel had nine kills, junior Elin Schott added six, and junior Kaylee Finnegan and sophomore Kate Eigner contributed three apiece in the 64-minute match.
Clay (14-11) regrouped in the second set to give the Arrows a test. After trailing 4-1 early, the Eagles used an 11-3 surge to take an 12-7 edge following a kill from senior Molly Brammer and an Arrows error.
Clay still led 16-15 until St. Ursula regained the momentum on the serve of senior Emma Organ, who delivered one of her team's seven aces in the match as the Arrows' 5-0 run netted a 20-16 advantage. The Eagles got no closer than three points from there.
"I think it shows a lot about this team not giving up, and being able to overcome some of those errors we had, and coming back to win that set," Yaggi said of the second set rally. "They are young, and they realized this is district semis — 'let's go out and make a statement and win it in three.'"
The third set was all St. Ursula, as the Arrows opened on an 8-3 surge and were never threatened. Back-to-back Eagles errors closed a 9-1 St. Ursula run for a 20-9 edge, and the Arrows closed the deal to advance to Wednesday's 6 p.m. district final.
"We just went after every ball and didn't let anything drop," Eigner said. "Our blockers were there, our hitters were there, and everything was just on tonight.
"Our outsides did a great job tonight, our setters put the ball where they needed to put it, and our senior, Emma Organ, went on a few [serving] runs that helped us win the game."
Clay's attack was paced by six kills from sophomore Adella Rodriguez, and the Eagles also got five kills each from senior Grace Dalton and junior Callie Krueger.
Northview's Wildcats entered the semis having split their two NLL matches against AW's Generals, including a 3-2 road loss on Oct. 14.
In this match, Northview got the jump on AW in each set, pulling out to leads and fending off every Generals comeback bid. Anthony Wayne's only lead in the match was a 1-0 edge at the start of the second set.
"We were excited to play a league rival for the third time," Northview coach Chad Rutkowski said. "We knew they would be stubborn and push us to our limit. They did that when we played them last time.
"This time, we knew we had to get ahead and stay ahead. If we were in the driver's seat from the get-go, that's always a positive thing for our squad."
The Wildcats were led on the attack by junior Kamryn Hunt's 16 kills. They took a quick 8-3 lead in the first set, and kept AW's runs to a minimum. The Generals did get within 23-22 on kill from sophomore Elayna Sonnenberg, but Northview answered with a kill and a service ace from Hunt to end that threat.
In the second set, Northview grabbed a quick 4-1 lead before settling into a tight battle with the Generals, who never trailed by more than four points the rest of the way. In a bit of deja vu, that set ended on a Hunt kill followed by an ace sophomore Hannah Schoen.
"We know that the team with the longest [points] run will win the set almost every time, so we had to be that team," Rutkowski said. "Kamryn did a great job being able to convert. She's our go-to hitter, and was able to convert at a high rate tonight."
If Anthony Wayne (15-9) had any hopes of rallying from down 0-2, it perhaps vanished early in the third when the Wildcats took leads of 6-0 and 10-3 early.
The Generals did get as close as 19-17 when a Northview attack sailed wide. But the Wildcats responded with back-to-back point-scoring blocks to push their lead back to four points, and AW got no closer than three from there.
"We knew we needed to focus on our side coming into the match," Hunt said. "The last time we faced them we lost in five, and after each set they would keep going to their next level. So, we knew we had to go to our next level.
"You have to have what we call a goldfish mindset. They only have a mindset that last 10 seconds. So, after you make a mistake, you have to forget about it because you'll make a great play after that."
The loss spoiled the solid attack effort of AW senior Ali Denman, who delivered 16 kills. Paige Ludwig was next with three kills for the Generals. The undoing in the match for AW was its 17 service errors.
Complementing Hunt on the Northview attack were sophomores Natalie Kerchevall and Claire Smith, who added eight and four kills, respectively.
First Published October 25, 2021, 9:00pm
