Perrysburg’s Kaylee Pierce and Hayden Siebenaler block Maddie Perz from Toledo Whitmer in their Division I district final at Lake High School Thursday. (Photo by Ken Falls)
MILLBURY — After sweeping Toledo Whitmer twice in Northern Lakes League Buckeye Division play, it took five sets for Perrysburg to down the Panthers in a Division I district championship game at Lake High School Thursday.
But the Yellow Jackets (17-6) prevailed, 17-25, 16-25, 25-16, 25-22, 17-15, and now advance to Central Crossing High School in Grove City, Ohio, where they will face Powell Olentangy Liberty at 6 p.m. next Thursday in a regional semifinal. The regional final is set for Saturday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m.
Perrysburg coach Laura Davidson says the Yellow Jackets have to pick up their intensity when they get to the regional tournament.
“Obviously, we are always going to keep working on our serving and passing game,” Davidson said.
“I think we still need to serve tougher because of the teams coming up, but we have film on every team that we think we might play, so we’re going to do some scouting and see where their holes are and then make that our strengths.”
Perrysburg senior outside hitter Sophie Burkey agrees that the team needs to pick up on its serving.
“I just think we need to keep staying aggressive, putting the ball in smart places, and just keep serving aggressive,” Burkey said. “I feel like that is one of our big strengths that we need to keep working on.”
It may have helped the Panthers (12-12) having seen the Yellow Jackets twice, because the third time it seemed like they had a complete scouting report and used it to their advantage.
“They were serving very aggressively,” Burkey said. “We struggled a little with the passing at the beginning, and they were also very smart about where they put the ball.”
Perrysburg had not played in an actual game against a real opponent since defeating Clay eight days earlier, so that may have led into the Jackets’ slow start, but they picked up steam in the third set.
“After losing the first two sets, I believe that we came in a little bit more on our serving and passing game because that’s what they were winning, so that’s how they were able to win the first two sets,” Davidson said.
“So, once we keyed in on that a little bit we were able to run our offense and score more points and not give them points.”
Perrysburg lost by a combined 15 points in the first two sets but began the third by taking a big lead out of the gate and winning by nine.
“We did get some points early and I think that did give us some confidence, so moving into the third set felt a lot better because we were able to get some points on them. I think we got our groove back,” said Davidson.
Burkey added, “We stayed aggressive. The first two sets we were not playing our game and then, the third set we started to turn it around and we wanted it very bad. We were just playing aggressive, and we just took care of our job on our part.”
(— postgame interviews and photos were by Ken Falls)
