The battle between the Northern Lakes League’s two Wood County teams doesn’t count in the league standings, but Perrysburg played like it did Thursday, sweeping host Bowling Green 25-18, 25-23, 25-21.

Perrysburg, ranked sixth in the Ohio Division I state coaches poll, had to make a better showing after getting swept by Anthony Wayne, ranked second in D-II, on Tuesday.

Perrysburg junior setter and pin hitter Katie Pahl, who led the Yellow Jackets with 16 kills, said her team had to rebuild confidence in their NLL cross-divisional match with BG.

“We talked a lot in practice Wednesday about regrouping, obviously,” Pahl said. “It was a tough loss (Tuesday). We needed to come back out here. We needed to find our groove again.

“I think we’re doing OK. We’re still improving a little bit. I think at times we are still a little sloppy, but it was better than Tuesday,” Pahl continued.

Perrysburg coach Laura Davidson, who saw her team improve to 8-1 Thursday, said the Bobcats did not make it any easier, playing all three sets close.

“We knew they would be scrappy, we knew they would be getting a lot of balls off the floor and we know that every time we come to Bowling Green that they are going to play their hardest,” Davidson said.

“Obviously we worked on a few things in between the Anthony Wayne game and this, just trying to be more consistent, making sure that we can come out of a couple points right away so we’re not letting them have long strings of points, and really attacking with our serves and going from there, running our offense.”

For Perrysburg, sophomore middle blocker Hayden Siebenaler had four blocks and senior libero Brooklynn Okoneski had three aces.

But BG had a bright spot, too, despite the loss as senior libero Hanna Heinze registered her 1,000th career dig.

When Davidson was talking about “getting balls off the floor,” she was talking about Heinze. Heinze needed just four digs to reach 1,000 and she got 12 digs and three assists, so she now has 1,008 digs for her career.

“She’s the heart and soul of the team,” BG coach Deb Mathias said. “She is a workhorse. She gives it everything she has. She doesn’t sweat the small stuff. She doesn’t let the little things bother her.

“She’s a great communicator. She is a great captain. She’s constantly trying to uplift the team and try to help out in as many ways as she can. I can’t say enough good things about her — she is an amazing kid. I love her. We are going to miss her next year for sure.”

In addition, BG senior outside hitter Madison Cowan had 10 kills and just needs 16 to reach 1,000 career kills, plus Cowan had nine digs, a solo block and an assist. Senior setter Molly Ruthenberg contributed 11 assists and nine digs.

An early back-and-forth first set saw BG senior middle blocker Tara Hastings score a kill that put the Bobcats up 11-10, but Perrysburg scored seven straight points and never trailed again.

In the second set, BG junior middle blocker Julia Blum scored on a block, bringing the Bobcats to within one, 24-23, but Perrysburg senior outside hitter Sophie Burkey followed by scoring the set-winning shot on a kill. Mathias said her team made too many mistakes.

“Against a team like this that has strong hitters, you have got to go out and play a clean game,” Mathias said. “I thought we played a heck of a job on defense tonight. Our serve-receive was good, but I thought we struggled a little bit with a few lulls.

“We made some unforced errors, we made some mental mistakes, and then we struggled sometimes on the block. We struggled getting the block closed, penetrating on the block and getting our shoulders square to the net and making sure that ball was coming inside the court instead of actually being shot outside the court.

“You know, it was just little errors here and there was the difference, especially in that first and second set,” Mathias added.

Perrysburg took a commanding 20-10 lead in the third set, but consecutive aces by BG junior defensive specialist Kendall Heinze brought the Bobcats to within three, 24-21. However, a kill by Siebenaler finished the match.

“In that third set though, man, we were down 10 points at one time, but they battled,” Mathias said. “They never gave up and that’s what I’m most proud of.

“They continued to come back, they brought the game to within three and Perrysburg was sweating it. They knew they had to come in here and work because these girls wanted to get the job done tonight.”

The Bobcats, after falling in straight sets to Clay on Tuesday, are 7-3. For Perrysburg, it is just a matter of getting back on track until they face AW again on the Jackets’ court on October 8.

“Tuesday, we didn’t play our best, but we know that and we still stayed pretty close to them the first two sets,” Pahl said. “I think if we can come out the next time we see them, and come out guns blazing, we’ll be good. I’m glad we will see them again.”