Bowling Green’s Division III district runner-up volleyball team — (not in order) seniors Hanna Heinze, Marley Camera, Molly Ruthenberg, Sophie Shepherd, Tara Hastings, Natalee Harris, Hannah Yarger, and Madison Cowan; juniors Kendall Heinze, Ruby Suter, Julia Strum, and Kiersten Hendricks; and sophomores Lucy Bowers, Addison Brokaw, and Juliana Firsdon. (J. Patrick Eaken | Sentinel-Tribune)
KALIDA — Lima Shawnee junior Addie Kriegel and senior Sydney Burris combined on a block to score match point as the Indians held off Bowling Green, 21-25, 25-21, 24-26, 25-20, 18-16, in a Division III district final at Kalida High School Thursday.
The game had four match points in the final set — three by Shawnee and one by BG, but it was Shawnee that finally converted.
“Tonight, it’s a team win because Bowling Green is a very good team,” Shawnee coach Brooke Hutchins said. “It could have gone either way.”
Hutchins said Kriegel and Burris’ play to finally finish off a marathon match showed focus.
“I think it was just dialing in,” Hutchins said. “We had talked the whole time — they are an above the net playing team. They’ve got a lot of leapers, a lot of very athletic girls, and I think talking in the huddle that we just needed to get and find their target early was going to be very advantageous.”
Shawnee (19-6) advances to the Norwalk regional tournament next Thursday, where they will play Toledo St. Ursula at 8 p.m. BG sees its season end at 17-8, although they could easily by 18-7.
“It was so back and forth,” BG coach Deb Mathias said. “It was a big-time heartbreaker, but I’m proud of the girls. They worked their butts off. They never quit. They kept fighting.
“I thought we played well — we played well on defense. I just think we struggled in some of those (sets) just being able to finish at the end.”
Shawnee 5-foot-9 junior Karleigh Hutchins was the hitter the Bobcats could not shut down — she can score on a kill from anywhere on the court. As a team, Shawnee had 62 kills and Hutchins supplied 60% with 37 kills plus she had two aces.
No matter where BG sent the ball, Hutchins’ teammates were deliberately passing backward, any which they had to, so Hutchings could get the kill shot, even if she shot from the back row.
“We just really struggled on trying to shut down that No. 3 (Karleigh Hutchins),” said Mathias. “She swung in the front row. She swung out of the back row. She was the one key. She was hard to stop. They just had a little bit too many offensive weapons for us tonight.”
One might argue that Karleigh Hutchins is better at shooting from the back row than she is from the front row. She says it is a skill set that she has had to develop.
“It is definitely an adjustment, but you have to time it right and just get the ball — wait for it, and go get it,” Hutchins said.
Coach Hutchins added, “She’s a gamer. She’s very precise. She’s a perfectionist, but they were triple blocking her, in the back row, too.”
Shawnee senior libero Maggie Jordan says Karleigh Hutchins makes the Indians’ offense go.
“Seriously, she is so good from nearly everywhere on the court,” Jordan said. “It’s so nice to have a hitter who is so versatile, and she always has a smile on her face when she is hitting, too, so that’s always fun to see.”
Because of Karleigh Hutchins and BG senior outside hitter Madison Cowan (26 kills, 15 digs), there were very few blocks in the game, except that the Bobcats had three in the fifth set and the Indians won the match on a block.
“We were getting touches on the block,” Mathias said. “We were slowing the ball down. We just couldn’t terminate and stop it.”
Coach Hutchins knew that blocking BG would be hard to do, so just getting touches on the block or redirecting was good enough for her.
“Our biggest thing is if you take away the net, their strengths, and feed the ball to where our strong defense is, the blockers have done their job, in my opinion,” coach Hutchins said.
“If you can roof, that is just supplemental. If you get a hand on the ball and slow the ball down, that’s really what we wanted to do. I think we did that,” coach Hutchins continued.
“I was concerned because they have a lot of very nice senior players and so do we, of course, but when the going got tough and we made modifications, they did as well, our pieces and our role players stepped in at key times — (freshman) Josie Hutchins, (junior) Addie Kriegel, I mean, they just did a great job. It was a true team win.”
Jordan and Karleigh Hutchins said trying to stop Cowan and BG’s top hitters was a challenge, too.
“It was tough. They were a really good hitting team,” Jordan said. “That No. 31 (Cowan) — she was really good, and they hit a lot of hard balls. But it was very fun.”
Karleigh Hutchins added, “They were a very good team. They had a bunch of powerful hitters. They were scrappy on defense — I mean we fought back just as hard. Our defense and servicing was what helped us win and push through the last final points.”
For Shawnee, freshman Gianna Upshaw had 12 kills, Kriegel had five kills and two blocks, Josie Hutchins had four kills, Burris had three blocks and four assists, and juniors Liz Kinnear and Emily McKissick and senior Mackenzie Brickner had two aces apiece.
For BG, sophomore opposite hitter Addison Brokaw had 12 kills, a solo block, one block assist, and a dig, senior middle blocker Tara Hastings had 11 kills, one solo block, two block assists, and four digs, and senior setter Molly Ruthenberg had a kill, two aces, 15 digs and 20 assists.
BG senior setter Sophie Shepherd had two kills, an ace, 12 digs and 18 assists, and senior libero Hanna Heinze had an ace, 45 digs, and nine assists, and Cowan also had an ace and a block assist.
