Perrysburg junior outside hitter Katie Pahl rises for an attack in the first set of Saturday’s loss against visiting Cleveland St. Joseph Saturday. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
PERRYSBURG — The Perrysburg volleyball team was unable to overcome a tough Cleveland Saint Joseph team in a 25-21, 25-21, 25-12 non-league loss at home on Saturday.
“We were able to shift a lot,” Perrysburg coach Laura Davidson said. “I made (lineup) changes each set just to see what was going to work. Obviously we’re playing a very fast, high-caliber team, and we knew that going in.
“We need to play these teams to be able to understand what we need to do when we go into postseason play. We have a lot of learning to do from a loss like this, but obviously Saint Joe’s is a great team, and they’re going to help us get there.”
The outside pair of Katie Pahl and Sophie Burkey helped keep the Yellow Jackets close in the opening two sets.
Pahl, who wasn’t 100 percent due to an illness, delivered four kills down the stretch in the opening set, the last one helping her team pull within three on two occasions late after SJA had opened up a 21-14 lead at one point.
“(Katie) will typically have a lot more kills for us,” Davidson said. “She just wasn’t 100% today. I moved her over to the right side toward the end of the match just because we needed some more swings on the outside.”
Perrysburg opened the second frame with a termination from Burkey, but SJA reeled off the next five points. A kill and an ace from Pahl helped the Yellow Jackets respond and eventually tie the set at seven and eight.
A 5-2 run from Saint Joseph Academy forced a timeout from Perrysburg, which saw the visiting Jaguars cough up a point at the service line out of the break.
SJA, however, scored the next four and took a 19-12 lead. A kill from Hayden Siebenaler, along with back-to-back points via an ace from Casey Ng and a block from Reese Kaminski and Allison McDowell brought Perrysburg within 23-19.
Despite a termination from Mackenzie Hurley late, SJA finished off the set.
“We know exactly what to work on,” Davidson said. “It’s a mental game, as well. It’s not just physical. We have some young kids who haven’t been in the postseason a whole lot, so when we’re playing teams like this, we’re preparing them for the state tournament.
“We just have some mental growth to do. And from that, it becomes physical, and we’re able to keep up with a team like that. I think we can be a little bit faster.”
The Jaguars were able to keep Perrysburg out of system for a decent portion of the match, an effort that was aided by four blocks and four aces from SJA in the second set, along with three Perrysburg attack errors.
In fact, the Yellow Jackets had just seven terminations as a team in the second frame.
The Yellow Jackets got off to a strong start in the third set, scoring six of the first eight points behind a kill and an ace from Burkey, a kill from Pahl and a block from Hurley and Kaminski.
SJA (10-5), however, reeled off 13 straight points from there and led by as many as 13 twice down the stretch despite another late block from Kaminski.
The Yellow Jackets had just five kills in the final frame, and three of them came from Burkey. SJA also added four more aces as Perrysburg struggled in serve receive.
“We just struggled passing in the third set, so our mental game again kind of got to us,” Davidson said. “Physically, I think if we’re mentally there, we can keep up with a team like this even though they’re a great, fast team.”
SJA head coach Jordan Kortowich was happy with her team’s “grit.”
“We practiced a lot of pursuit this week and going after every ball, so that’s where I think we executed heavily,” she said. “There was effort behind everything. There was power behind everything. Every touch had a purpose. We held big in all aspects of the court.”
Despite the loss, Perrysburg (9-2) has started the season strong overall. They’ll take a 7-1 record in NLL play into Tuesday’s matchup against Napoleon at home.
“I think our team did a great job,” Davidson said. “We made lineup changes every single set, and they were able to go in there and play hard no matter who was playing where.”
