Staff photo / Preston Byers. Lakeview’s Molly Stuart celebrates after winning a point during the Bulldogs’ 3-0 win at McDonald on Wednesday.
McDONALD — Losing happens to everyone. Lakeview’s girls volleyball team, one of the best in the area, had learned that lesson twice this season.
McDonald had managed to evade defeat for the first 19 matches of the year, though, and needed just a few more victories in its final matches to finish the regular season with an undefeated record.
But the Bulldogs proved again that losing does, in fact, happen to everyone, even the Blue Devils, who fell in straight sets to Lakeview (25-19, 25-16, 25-22) on Wednesday.
While both teams were well-aware the non-conference matchup was highly anticipated, Lakeview, as the away team and the only one with a loss, assumed a role it has not been in much this season: the underdog.
“The girls knew coming in that being the underdog sometimes is great because we have nothing to lose. We weren’t expected to win,” Lakeview head coach Heather Guthrie said. “It’s definitely something that we needed. … Coming in as the underdog definitely changed our mentality, and it brought out more of the fight mode in us.”
The Bulldogs did not play like an underdog, though, and instead jumped out ahead early and kept up the pressure.
By utilizing well-timed tips and senior Reagan Price’s athleticism at the net, Lakeview, despite a late comeback attempt, closed out the opening set with a 25-19 victory.
Lakeview continued to push the pace and the limits of McDonald’s defense in the second set.
“[Lakeview is] just an outstanding team. Their hitters, their quick offense. We haven’t seen offense, really, that quick all year,” McDonald head coach Mike Klockner said.
After losing the second set 25-16, Klockner, whose team had not trailed going into the third set this season, tried to rally his team to pull off a reverse sweep.
“Just take one set at a time. The game’s not over yet. We have another set to do. Take the set and then go to the next set and the next. We don’t look far ahead. We just take one set of time, one point at a time,” Klockner said of his message to his team after falling behind 2-0.
Facing its first defeat of the season, McDonald responded by taking a 10-4 lead in the third set. But the Bulldogs, like Klockner told the Blue Devils, began to take one point at a time for themselves.
In short order, Lakeview erased McDonald’s lead and built one of its own, forcing the Blue Devils to come from behind to avoid a loss.
While McDonald began to rally — the Devils won eight of 11 points to pull within one late in the set — Lakeview finished off previously unbeaten McDonald 25-22.
Klockner said that Wednesday’s loss should be a valuable lesson for his team.
“We play teams like Lakeview to get us ready for the tournament,” Klockner said. “There’s a lot of good tonight but obviously a lot to fix. Playing good teams — really good teams — like that shows us what we need to work on.”
Guthrie said she and her team learned some things from Wednesday’s match as well.
“McDonald had great defense,” Guthrie said. “They were really shutting us down when we were out of system. So that just tells us going into playoffs, that we have to work harder on our out-of-system balls.”
McDonald (19-1) will attempt to rebound vs. Lowellville today before finishing up the regular season Saturday against Brookfield.
Lakeview (18-2) concludes its regular season with a home match today vs. Warren JFK. The Bulldogs are scheduled to begin postseason play against Cleveland East Tech on Oct. 19.