Marietta’s Anna Ritter, who had 10 kills, spikes the ball past the attempted block of Warren’s Elayna Greenwalt during the Tigers’ Ohio Valley Athletic Conference 5A sweep of the host Warriors on Tuesday night inside Warrior Coliseum.
(Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
VINCENT — Second-seeded Warren head coach Ann Skufca’s Warriors outlasted third-seeded Marietta in five sets on Thursday, but here Tuesday evening inside the Warrior Coliseum during an Ohio Valley Athletic Conference 5A semifinal the Tigers earned a 25-12, 25-18 and 25-20 sweep.
MHS head coach Ron Kidder’s program, which improved to 18-2, returns to action at 11 a.m. Saturday for the OVAC championship match at Ohio University-Eastern. The Tigers, whose only other setback came against Class AAA state champion Morgantown, will face either the top-seeded Mohigans or No. 4 University, which play tonight.
“After the game we were all really upset,” admitted Tiger Emma Middleton, who had five aces, five kills and seven digs, of losing Thursday to the Warriors. “We weren’t expecting it.
“I’d say that we were upset coming into the weekend and then coming into practice Monday, and then coming into today we were ready. Yesterday we took practice very seriously and we were ready to go. I think that showed we were ready.”
Warren, which will play the MHS/UHS loser in the consolation match on Thursday, had just one service point in the initial set and didn’t take its first lead until the opening point of set three thanks to an Elayna Greenwalt service tally.
Warren’s Sydney Starcher serves up one of her two aces during the Warriors”’ OVAC Class 5A semifinal loss to Marietta, which won via a sweep, during Tuesday night’s match inside Warrior Coliseum.
(Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
“It really means a lot,” said MHS setter Taylor Karcher, who had a match-high 34 assists and chipped in a pair of kills. “We didn’t play as well as we should’ve last game.
“Our main goal today was to just come out and give it everything we had. We’re excited. We want another shot at them. Just ready to play.”
Ari Buckley, who had 14 digs and a match-high 11 kills with teammate Anna Ritter joining Warrior Madyson Long with 10 downed spikes apiece, had consecutive kills to help the Tigers open a 13-5 advantage in set one.
Tori Dawson added three straight aces for a 17-7 bulge as Haley Wilkinson served for the final three points in the best-of-five match. Dawson finished with four aces and six kills.
“We came out motivated and determined and ready for revenge, and we came out focused,” Buckley said.
Marietta libero Reagan Karcher Karcher keeps a ball alive as teammates Ari Buckley (20) and Haley Wilkinson (24) look on during the Tigers’ OVAC Class 5A sweep of host Warren on Tuesday night inside Warrior Coliseum.
(Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
“When we play our best ball I feel like we are all playing for each other instead of ourselves. We don’t focus on our mistakes and we move on and have each other’s back.”
Although a Ritter ace and a Dawson kill gave MHS a quick 2-0 lead in set two, back-to-back attack errors evened things before the Tigers eventually went ahead for good at 15-14 thanks to a Warrior service error.
Middleton served for the final two points via consecutive kills from Wilkinson.
“We were ready. My fault on the last one. I didn’t have them prepared like they needed to be,” said coach Kidder, who got a dozen digs from libero Reagan Karcher. “Warren played well, but we came into this game focused.”
Sydney Starcher, who finished with eight kills, had back-to-back aces to give the Warriors a 9-8 lead in set three.
Marietta’s Emma Middleton serves up one of her match-high five aces during the opening set of the Tigers’ Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Class 5A sweep of host Warren on Tuesday night inside the Warrior Coliseum.
(Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
Following kills from Bailey Saliba and Long, which were sandwiched around a MHS attack error, coach Skufca’s squad led 14-10 as the Tigers called timeout.
“I just told the girls you don’t freeze up now. Get them a point at a time and we’ll go from there,” Kidder said of the message during the timeout.
“Very class act. These kids are very classy, represent our school well and they play hard.
Hopefully we get a chance to play them (Morgantown) up there.”
Marietta was able to take control of the final set when Middleton stepped to the service line and scored seven straight to put the Warriors (18-2) in a 20-16 hole.
Despite kills by Starcher, Sarah Pettey and Long, and another Long downed spike to stave off one match point, the Tigers finished it off with a Buckley kill.
“We were expecting a good game because they gave us such a hard game last time and they are a really good team, but I think we came into practice really focused and ready to do better this time and I think it paid off,” Ritter said.
“It’s (OVAC) really exciting. I think we are walking into the game with a lot of confidence. I know that it will be a really good game and we’ll have to work hard, but I think we’ll play for each other and we’ll play hard and give them a good game.”
Payge Cornell finished with an ace and 24 assists for the Warriors, who got six kills from Greenwalt.
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com