PERRYSBURG — Perrysburg 5-foot-11 sophomore forward Hayden Siebenaler found herself stepping into the shoes of 6-foot-1 senior Wrigley Takats when Takats chose to focus on her upcoming NCAA Division I volleyball career.

So far, it is paying off for the Yellow Jackets.

Siebenaler scored seven points, but more importantly she grabbed 12 rebounds to lead her team past a taller and physical Findlay squad, 53-38, in Northern Lakes League Buckeye Division action Thursday.

“My mindset and our mindset is like, the first thing is rebound, rebound, rebound, and we just Japlay really aggressively and we just go for everything and just go all out,” Siebenaler said.

Perrysburg coach Todd Sims says Siebenaler fits into the Yellow Jackets’ scheme, no matter what strategy they need to implement against whichever opponent because she has such an athletic skill set.

“She’s really good at it. She is super athletic, she can really jump,” Sims said. “It’s not a problem, but her only thing is she’s just young and you have to get used to it, and she’s 15 games in.

“I thought she’s done well all season. She’s very active, she’s hard to guard, and she’s really good at running the court. We beat them (Findlay) a couple times in transition to her.

While Findlay started five seniors, Siebenaler and guard Kallie Thames are Perrysburg’s only sophomore starters, joining three junior guards. Siebenaler says she’s welcomed by her teammates.

“I really enjoy playing this,” Siebenaler said. “I feel like I’m welcome to this team, we play a good schedule and it’s very encouraging. We play really hard and we make it work.”

Thanks to Siebenaler, Perrysburg won by controlling the boards by a 35-28 count, and she can play defense, too.

Findlay 6-1 senior post Sophia Myers, two inches taller than Siebenaller, was held to five points plus she fouled out with 2:06 remaining in the game. She was also held to just three rebounds, mostly kept in check by Siebenaler.

Perrysburg also won by finding their outside shooters, hitting eight three-point shots, and taking care of the basketball by committing just eight turnovers.

“We shot the ball well at times tonight, did a good job on the boards, we were active and it was fun,” Sims said.

Leading the way was sophomore guard Addy Byrne, who came off the bench to hit four triples and score 12 points, including banking one in from 23 feet at the third quarter buzzer to give Perrysburg a 42-31 lead.

“Addy hit some huge shots,” Sims said. “That’s her game — she’s a really good shooter. That didn’t hurt us at all.”

Perrysburg junior guard Hayley Griggs had 10 points and two steals and junior guard Chloe Kilbride contributed eight points and five rebounds.

Perrysburg junior guard Ayla Turk had seven points and five rebounds and Thames had six points, five rebounds and two steals.

The Yellow Jackets shot 36% (19-for-53) from the field and made 7-of-10 free throws. The Trojans shot 32% (13-for-41) from the floor, made 10-of-18 free throws (56%) and had 10 turnovers.

“We’d like a win, but we got outrebounded and you can’t get outrebounded and expect to win,” Findlay coach Brian Rosendale said.

“We didn’t shoot very well from the line and if you do that you are not going to win. That was our downfall.”

Senior guard Madilyn Stechschulte led Findlay with 12 points, seven rebounds and two steals, and senior guard Aleksyss Arrendondo had scored 11 points by halftime, but was held scoreless in the second half.

Senior guard Zoe McCormick scored five points and senior guard Katelyn Stechschulte added three points to round out the Trojans’ scoring.

Winning in the Buckeye Division does not come easy — the five girls teams are a combined 37-9 in non-league games.

Perrysburg, which needed the win if the Yellow Jackets want any chance of keeping in contention behind league leader Anthony Wayne (10-2, 4-0), improves to 10-5 overall and 2-2 in the division, while Findlay falls to 8-4 and 1-3.

“It’s a tough league. It’s good teams every night,” Rosendale said. “It’s a grind. They’re (Perrysburg) a good team.”

Sims added, ““They have a lot of seniors so they are more experienced than we are and physically bigger than we are. Oh, it (the league) is really tough.

“We have three seniors and some other teams have two, three or four, but they are a little bit senior dominated than our side, except for Anthony Wayne — they just have the one.

“We’re doing really well. Hopefully, this helps in the tournament and a couple teams have a run.”