Lake volleyball players celebrate a fourth straight Northern Buckeye Conference championship. (courtesy Tonya Dewese)
By Ben Shanahan
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
MAUMEE — Lake volleyball secured its fourth straight Northern Buckeye Conference title with a three-set, 25-13, 25-17, 25-6 win over Maumee Thursday.
Lake finished the regular season 16-6 overall and 13-1 in the NBC, taking the title outright. It is Lake’s third straight outright title after sharing the championship with Eastwood in 2020, but that 2020 season was Lake’s first-ever NBC title.
Since 2011, only four schools have won NBC volleyball championships, but Fostoria has just one (2018). Eastwood has six and Lake and Otsego have four each, including shared titles.
Lake started the season winning nine straight NBC games before Eastwood handed the Flyers their only loss, taking three of four sets. It was a game where Lake dropped more sets (three) than they did in the rest of their NBC contests (two).
From there, the Flyers bounced back, beating Otsego at home three sets to one, sweeping Rossford at home and finally clinching the conference on the road at Maumee.
Lake coach Amy Vorst said it took some resolve to bounce back after the loss to Eastwood, which finished in second place in the NBC.
“We knew we had to take care of business for the rest of the season,” Vorst said. “The girls stuck to the game plan, and we practiced very hard at a high level.
“They knew Otsego and Rossford would be good competitors. They did what they had to do and got it done.”
For Vorst, winning the NBC is nothing new, but she said this year it took a little extra because the Flyers now have a target on their back.
“It feels great; this is one of our girls’ initial goals going into the season. We knew that the league had some tough teams. I am very proud of how they played. They executed the game plan and got it done.” said Vorst.
Also for Lake, his is a special senior class — a class that has won every NBC title since their seventh grade year.
“It is insane that this is their fourth year in high school of winning the NBC, but they were also NBC champs in seventh and eighth grade, so this is the senior class’ sixth year winning the league,” said Vorst.
One of those seniors, 5-foot-11 outside hitter Taryn Dewese, says it hasn’t been easy to bring any of those trophies back to her school.
“This really shows how hard we worked as a group. We all put a lot of time into this sport.” Dewese said.
Fellow senior setter and outside hitter Vayda Delventhal added, “It really is just crazy; I would not want to do it with anyone else.”
Senior libero Sydney Stanley said, “It honestly was an honor to play with these girls for the last six years. I love these girls.”
Heading into the Maumee game, Dewese led the team with 338 kills, Delventhal had 129, and junior middle hitter Kiera Magers had 104. Dewese had 51 aces, Delventhal 31, Stanley and freshman defensive specialist Calli Conley had 25 each and junior DS Sydney Marchetto had 21.
Freshman middle hitter Mylah Vorst led the team in blocks with 34, Magers had 33, Dewese 32, senior middle hitter Maura Deutschman 23, and junior Sydney Brown had 10. Delventhal had a team-high 348 assists, Dewese had 280, and Stanley 109.
On defense, Delventhal led the team with 279 kills, Stanley had 275, Dewese 227, Marchetto 126 and Conley 119.
The next step for the Flyers is the Division II tournament. Top-seeded Lake will take on Toledo Scott on Tuesday, October 17, at 6 p.m. on the Flyers’ court.
Heading into the tournament, Deutchman said her team is going to be have to play hard knowing every opponent will be out to take them down.
“Just keep working hard in the gym, basically knowing we have a target on our backs, so we have to play hard and smart every single game,” said Deutchman
