Lake middle blocker Mylah Vorst terminates a ball in the opening set of Thursday’s regional semifinal loss against Cortland Lakeview. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
LEXINGTON, Ohio — Bad starts in the third and fourth sets proved to be the undoing for the Lake volleyball team in a 25-19, 17-25, 25-19, 25-10 loss to Cortland Lakeview in a Division IV regional semifinal at Lexington High School on Thursday.
With the loss, the Flyers (19-7) had a seven-match winning streak snapped in what was the program’s second-consecutive regional appearance.
“We served way too easy, and we sent way too many free balls,” Lake coach Amy Vorst said. “Clearly my girls didn’t study the scouting report because we knew exactly who was swinging in each rotation, but we acted like we didn’t.
“They should have known because we knew. We had four films on them. We came and watched them twice.”
Cortland Lakeview (23-2) presented a big challenge for the Flyers, having lost only nine sets all season with a .357 team hitting percentage through district play.
Findlay-bound senior Reagan Price was ranked third in Ohio and 10th nationally in hitting percentage by MaxPreps at .521. On top of that, the Bulldogs handed Division VI regional semifinalist McDonald (24-1) their only regular season loss on Oct. 9.
Early on, however, a back-and-forth battle ensued as the opening frame featured eight ties, including a 15-15 score after Kennedy Falkenberg’s fourth kill of the set.
Cortland Lakeview answered with the next four points. Savanna Saunders terminated an attack on the right side to pull Lake within 22-19, but the Bulldogs scored the final three points to finish the set on a 10-4 run.
The next set was another back-and-forth battle as the two teams joined forces for nine ties and six lead changes over the first 27 combined points.
Down 13-12, the Flyers scored four straight, which included an ace from Calli Conley and a combo block from Saunders and Mylah Vorst. Cortland Lakeview fought back within two a few points later, but Keira Magers had back-to-back kills to spur a 6-0 run.
Laynie Meadows closed the frame with back-to-back terminations, the second one of the back-row variety, to help Lake close out the frame on a 13-4 run to hand Cortland Lakeview just its 10th set loss of the year.
The Bulldogs responded by scoring six of the first seven points in the third set and eventually opening up a 19-9 lead.
Cortland Lakeview banged the next serve into the net, though, which spurred something in Lake, which terminated six consecutive shots, including four from Falkenberg, to pull within 19-16.
A kill from Magers kept the Flyers within striking distance at 20-17, but three straight points from the Bulldogs proved to be too much to overcome.
“Our middle-setter connection was not as tight as it usually is,” Vorst said. “I don’t really have a reason for that, maybe it was nerves. They’re a good team. (Price) is a solid player, but when you serve right at people, it’s easy to be in system, and that’s what we did. We didn’t serve tough enough.”
Playing on Halloween night, the fourth set proved to be a nightmare for Lake, which fell behind 7-1 early. The Flyers managed to pull within as little as four, but the Bulldogs scored five straight to take a 16-7 lead.
Following a kill from Magers, Cortland Lakeview scored six straight to take a 22-8 lead, and despite a combo block from Vorst and Sydney Brown and a kill from Saunders late, the Bulldogs finished off the victory.
“We just served easy and gave too many free balls,” Vorst said. “Defensively, I thought we played hard. We just didn’t swing (well), and we didn’t serve hard.”
After that streak of six-consecutive terminations during their late third set run, Lake had just six kills as a team in the fourth frame, which included two apiece from Vorst and Magers.
Falkenberg led the Flyers with 13 kills, while Magers and Meadows had 11 apiece with Vorst chipping in nine. Sydney Marchetto added a team-best 25 digs, and Calli Conley had 16.
Saunders (25 assists, 19 digs) and Lucy Boos (19 assists, 12 digs) each produced double-doubles.
Despite the loss, Lake can take pleasure in a season that included a fourth-consecutive outright NBC title, fifth straight league championship overall (shared with Eastwood in 2020) and a second-straight district title despite the graduation of some of the top players in program history.
“I’m proud of them,” Vorst said. “After graduating all of the players we did last year, I don’t think anybody expected us to win the league and nobody definitely thought we were going to get to regionals, so I’m happy with how we played.
“I’m overall pleased with them. We have a ton of younger kids. This was a great experience for them. I plan on being back here next year and the year after that with our younger kids.”
