PORT CLINTON — The volleyball season came to an end for Northview and Notre Dame Academy in their respective Division I regional semifinal matches at Port Clinton High School on Thursday evening.
Despite the losses, both programs are hoping that some learning experiences carry over into the future for their programs.
The Wildcats (16-10) were defeated by No. 13 Olmsted Falls in four sets, 22-25, 25-22, 15-25, and 21-25. While they will lose four seniors, a slew of younger players now know what it feels like to win a district title — something the program hadn’t done in 23 years — and play in a regional match.
“We talk about in our program that success breeds success,” Northview head coach Chad Rutkowski said. “They know what it's like to win a district title, and we just talked about that in there.
“Next year, we're going to be here and we're going to win this match, and we're going to be playing in a regional final. We have that experience and we know what it's like. And it's time to continue to build this house and it's time to continue to do those things. The future is very bright for us, and it's going to continue to get brighter. This program is truly special.”
No. 18 Notre Dame Academy (18-7) fell in three sets to No. 9 Cleveland St. Joseph Academy, 20-25, 20-25, 23-25.
The Eagles will graduate seven seniors and, while they were disappointed by the sweep, they were competitive in all three sets. SJA never led by more than 8 points, and did so just once in the match during the second set, 19-11. Total, there were 21 ties.
“You definitely don't want to go out, but you want the girls to play hard, ” Notre Dame coach Jeff Pitzen said. “You don't want them to give up. And we have been in matches where I've seen them have those moments where they look like they're giving up, and they didn't do that tonight. And that's exactly how you want the season to end, because you want to have the girls who are then filling their spots take that leadership role next year. If their leaders aren't doing the work, it's going to be tough to rebuild. I think the girls set a nice example tonight.”
The first match of the night was between Northview and the Bulldogs (23-2).
For the Wildcats, sophomore Kamryn Hunt had 16 kills and freshman Nataile Kerchevall had 10. Senior setter Clair Kwiatkowski had 33 assists.
Olmsted Falls was led in its 6-2 offense by Riley Victor with 16 kills. Kylee Urban had 13 kills and 16 assists, while Bell Faust had 12 kills. Emma O’Brien had 22 assists.
“I talked to our kids and said moving forward if you want to beat teams like that, we're going have to speed up our offense,” Rutkowski said. “We're going to have to be fast, we're going to have to be more dynamic. And it's a great team. Hats off to them. They did an excellent job.
“They hadn't won a district title in 12 years, and it was 23 years for us, so it was going to be a great story regardless if we won. And I think for us, there are definitely teachable moments and learnable moments. I just told our kids we're going to go into a 28-day no-contact period, but we'll be right back at it, we're ready. We're definitely ready.”
While the first set was tied 12-12, a key serving run by Maddie Kreitzer gave the Bulldogs a 19-12 advantage. The Wildcats responded by rattling off four straight points thanks to a service run by senior libero Emma Dukate that included two aces. They got to within two points, 24-22, but an attack error ended the first set.
In the second set, the only one Northview won, the Wildcats got off to a 6-1 lead and built a 20-12 lead late. While the Bulldogs fought back to narrow Northview’s lead 23-22, two straight kills from Haley Catti tied the match at one set apiece.
Northview fell behind 10-3, and only managed to get within five points of Olmsted Falls in the third set. In the fourth and final set, the Wildcats never led but tied the set at 1-1 and 19-19.
“Realistically, I'm beyond proud of these kids and this group as a whole,” Rutkowski said. “This senior class has done a great job of leading. I think that the foundation for what we want to do for Northview volleyball is definitely set, and this group has definitely started to build some walls on our house.”
In the second match, NDA was led by Brynna Hastings, who had 13 kills and two aces. Maddie Mergen also had eight kills and Jaelyn Braden had six. Natalie Bialecki had 17 assists and Lauren Susor had 16.
Three players had 10 or more kills for the Jaguars: Heaven Bartell (14), Maxine Springer (10), and Juliette Chandler (10). Kirsten Barrett had 36 assists.
NDA got off to a strong start against SJA (15-9), building a 5-1 lead in the first set — but ultimately, there would be six ties in the frame, with SJA pulling away after the final 19-19 tie, recording five kills over its last six points.
After trailing 19-11 in set 2, the Eagles outscored SJA 9-4 to trail by just three points. SJA got the final kill it needed from Bartell to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
NDA built a 15-10 lead in the third set, but it evaporated after three kills from Chandler and two from Bartell. The duo also combined for three kills over the Jaguars’ final three points, wrestling a 23-23 tied away from NDA.
Ultimately, Pitzen said that when his team looks back on 2020, he hopes the biggest lesson that sticks is just how fleeting a season can be.
“We were just talking about it in there with everybody,” he said. “Our basketball program had a chance to go to states and then that got swept out from underneath them, and we felt terrible for them. So, to not even have a season, which some sports are experiencing, I couldn't imagine that.
“So, of course we are thankful. I think we took that into our practice every day. That's one of the things we talk about all the time is making sure we are doing those little things like wearing masks, staying six feet apart, sanitizing, doing all those things and doing them for each other so that our season doesn't end.”
First Published November 6, 2020, 4:25 a.m.
