Coldwater’s Morgan Blasingame drives a kill past the block attempt of a St. Henry defender during Wednesday’s district final win over the Redskins. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Julie Wright)
#1 Coldwater advanced to the regional round of the Division VI volleyball tournament Wednesday with a convincing, and powerful performance over #2 St. Henry that led some to ask…was this not the Division VI title game?
Van Wert, OH – They’re not 25-0 for no reason. Having lost but one set previous to Wednesday night’s Division VI Northwest 5 district final, it wasn’t by accident.
And by the end of #1 Coldwater’s 3-1 win over #2 state-ranked St. Henry some even questioned if they hadn’t witnessed not just a district final championship…but the Division VI state title game, as well. You would run that risk this year with a matchup between #1 and #2 just three games into the tournament.
But that’s how it happened, with Coldwater giving a powerful exhibition of serve, serve/receive, blocking, defense, and mental fortitude to the nearly 4,000 in attendance, topping MAC rival St. Henry, 25-16, 25-15, 20-25, and 25-10.
“You know, this whole tournament we’ve talked about how iron sharpens iron,” said Coldwater coach Nikki Etzler, post-game. “And you can sit back and talk about how the district chooses to assign us. Or we can say to ourselves that we’re really going to attack this with confidence and pursuit to be the best that we can be – to be challenged by the best early in the tournament. You hope that it catapults you through the tournament. That was our mindset and I think it’s served us well.
“Marion Local is a great team,” she continued. “And St. Henry is a great team with great players and great coaches, so it’s an honor to play them, but it’s also very difficult. The reality is that it did take place tonight, and we had to focus on what we can control. And this season what we controlled was having the right mindset to play these teams (Marion and St. Henry). In the future do we hope that we collectively come together and rethink how they’re doing things? And will we push for change? Absolutely, but we can only control what we control in this moment.”
St. Henry’s Ellie Fullenkamp smashes a shot past the reach of Coldwater defenders.
As we wrote, Coldwater is not 25-0 without reason. After a back-and-forth start in the first set the Cavaliers rode their superior serving, power at the net, and defense to creep out to a 14-9 lead, forcing St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck to call a timeout to regroup. But fresh out of the timeout Coldwater doubled down, increased their lead to 18-11 lead, an ultimately an 11-7 run to close out the set, 25-16.
The second set was a near mirror-image of the first – back and forth for the first 16 points. But again Coldwater crept out to a 16-10 lead before an extended rally off hitting and defense saw St. Henry drive four firm shots into the teeth of Coldwater’s defense, only to have those kill attempts dug up and sent back over the net. Finally, St. Henry’s defense found itself out of position just long enough for a Coldwater shot to hit the floor. It extended the Cavalier lead to 17-10, and again a 9-5 run by Coldwater closed the set at 25-15.
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It’s a game of momentum, and it’s game of precision – called system – where the timing of serve/receive, passing and shot attempt is executed on script. And Coldwater’s precision serving and their ability to disrupt St. Henry’s execution took its toll.
“Obviously Coldwater is a very good team, they played really well tonight, they served super aggressive and we couldn’t get in system – couldn’t get the ball to our middles when we wanted to,” said St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck. “Momentum is a huge thing in volleyball. They got it going, and we made some errors. We needed to play an A+ game and we didn’t play the game we needed to. We didn’t come close to playing that.”
Coldwater’s Spencer Etzler digs a St. Henry shot attempt during Wednesday’s district final match.
Except…down 2-0 St. Henry came out in the third set determined to come closer to the game they needed to play. This time at 16-16 it was St. Henry that went on a 4-0 run to go 20-16, then parried back and forth, trading points with Coldwater, before taking four of the last five points to win, 25-20. And if you were one of the vast backing of red behind the St. Henry bench you must have believed in some of that momentum going forward from 2-1 – playing for their season. Only, it just didn’t happen.
Coldwater opened the fourth set with an immediate 8-2 lead, forcing Rosebeck to call a regroup timeout.
But out of that timeout it seemed that Coldwater was the beneficiary, extending to 10-2, to 15-5, and then showed the attack and confidence that Etzler talked about in a 10-5 run that earned Coldwater the match and the district trophy.
And then the conversation…on the court, in the hallways and on the way to the parking lot about the district grouping three of the state’s top six teams (Coldwater, St. Henry, and Marion Local) in the same bracket.
“It’s a shame that this game happened now at this level,” said Rosenbeck, making a point. “The #1 an #2 teams in the state should not have to play each other in the districts. And it can be fixed, because other districts do it differently.”
St. Henry’s Olivia Gast stretches to save a point in Wednesday district match with Coldwater.
And it is a topic among numerous area coaches – defending Div. VII New Bremen, not twenty miles from St. Henry. Marion Local and Coldwater, is this year in Northwest District 4, along with Minster, who they beat in straight sets Wednesday for that district title. Fort Recovery, also from the MAC, is in Southwest District 2, and will meet Miami Valley Christian Academy for that district title on Thursday night.
St. Henry libero Rya Buschur closed her outstanding Redskin career in the district final.
But as Nikki Etzler said it, the hope is that a push for change can lead to rethinking the process…where the state’s best do not cannibalize each other in the district tournament.
St. Henry finished its season with a mark of 20-5, and their legit hopes of another Final Four appearance coming up a round short. There were tears that always come with the disappointment of falling short in your last game of the season – your career. But in the end Tricia Rosenbeck confidently spoke of her team’s attributes, proud of their resilience to come back from 2-0 and take the third set from the state’s #1 team.
“Absolutely. We have heart,” she concluded. “And we’re a really, really good team. We came in, we were ready, prepared…Coldwater played an A+ game, and we didn’t. But I was proud of the way they fought back…very, very proud of our seniors. They’ve been great leaders all season.”
And the thought prevails, as it did on the way to the parking lot…that if this wasn’t the state title match someone else now gets the opportunity to chance the Coldwater juggernaut, now 25-0, and with just two dropped sets in seventy one for the season.
And if you’re wondering…to Versailles, and St. Henry.
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