New Bremen celebrates the winning point in its long, hard-fought victory on the first night of MAC play. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Jeff Gilbert)
Both teams enjoyed multiple momentum swings in their direction, but in the fifth set the final two swings went unbeaten New Bremen’s way.
New Bremen, OH – New Bremen volleyball supporters got home a little later than usual from Thursday night’s home match. Rarely do they sit through five sets.
The bleachers might have even felt a little hard by the end of the two-hour match. But it’s doubtful anyone complained.
As Versailles coach Liz McNeilan said: “That’s a regional, state-level match right there.”
And as New Bremen coach Diana Kramer said: “Everybody was playing aggressively. They were playing high above the net. There were some phenomenal digs tonight. It’s just what you expect on the opening night of MAC play.”
Minster Bank is the official banking resource for Press Pros Magazine.com.
What the appreciative crowd saw was mercurial momentum that both sides fought to prevent from slipping away. Versailles won the first set 25-18. New Bremen won the next two, 25-17 and 25-19. Versailles won the fourth, 25-21.
The three-minute break before the fifth set felt interminable. How would this night, full of postseason atmosphere, turn out?
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com. Follow on X @jw_gilbert
Well, on a night when both teams owned the best of the action many times, unbeaten New Bremen had it last and held on 15-11 to win the Midwest Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
Whatever the cost of a high school volleyball ticket, the patrons from both schools spent their money well.
“Let me just say something about the Versailles crowd and the New Bremen crowd,” Kramer said. “How many high school volleyball games do you walk into a gym like this, where it is loud from the first point to the last point, and it is competitive, and everybody’s on the edge of their seat. So, kudos to both communities, especially New Bremen, for showing up and pushing us through.”
In the final set, New Bremen took a 2-0 lead on Maria Kramer’s ace. True to the nature of the match, Versailles scored the next three points. Then the Cardinals responded with six straight to take a 9-3 lead.
Wilson Health/Orthopedics proudly sponsors the best in area sports and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Press Pros.
Ashtyn Eilerman, the Cardinals junior middle hitter, had two kills and a block to spark the run. Then, of course, the Tigers cut the lead to 10-9, and the Cardinals called a timeout. But two big plays at the net by Maria Kramer sparked the Cardinals’ final run.
Versailles’ Allison Bergman (3) and Hannah Luthman go high to get a hand on swing by New Bremen’s MariAna Muether.
“You felt the momentum, we had it, and then you felt our momentum slipping away, and then it’s flip a coin at 10-9,” Diana Kramer said. “Anybody could win. In those last four or five points, instead of tipping a ball or roll shotting the ball, we were aggressive when we served, and we were aggressive when we were swinging.”
For Versailles (4-3), the result wasn’t what they came for, and McNeilan wanted to see more aggressive play in the final set. But she returns only three starters. Everyone else is new to varsity.
“It didn’t go our way, but man, we did a lot of good things tonight, and I am impressed,” McNeilan said. “We got a lot of new girls wearing a varsity jersey this year, and the first couple times you put that on to step up for the first conference game and to play the way they did, super proud of them.”
Minster Dental is proud to sponsor the best in area sports stories on Press Pros Magazine.com.
Kramer, who has won four state titles at New Bremen since 2017 and will surely contend for one again this year in Division VI, also was impressed by Versailles.
“That team, I expect to win a state championship this year,” she said. “I’m calling it right now. Versailles is going to win a D5 state championship if they play the way they played tonight.”
New Bremen coach Diana Kramer lets her team know who she feels after they lost the first set.
The Tigers impressed in the first set, rolling to leads of 6-0 and 8-1. Five was as close as the Cardinals could get in the set. And when they walked to the bench at the end of the set, Kramer was waiting for them and spoke with same passion she wanted to see her team play with.
“The message was as good as Versailles is, we also made 16 mistakes,” she said. “Sixteen of their 25 points were our mistakes. Now, some of that is caused by them, but some of that’s caused by us not working hard enough without the ball, us taking things for granted, us taking plays off.”
She also reminded them to trust their training and to be confident.
“The only person that can be confident is themselves,” she said. “I believe in them. That’s one thing. But they have to believe that they are a good team, and tonight they proved that they’re a pretty good team.”
Versailles celebrates tying the match 2-2 by winning the fourth set.
Between the first and second sets, “Eye of the Tiger” played in the gym. Maybe not the best music choice when you’re playing the Tigers. But the Cardinals must not have been listening. Kramer had their attention.
To no one’s surprise, the Cardinals responded in the second set and built a 10-6 lead, then a 14-8 lead. And they kept the pressure on. The third set went much the same way. The expectation of the home fans was surely one more set and let’s go home.
But Versailles’ play said you might as well get comfortable. Back and forth the score went until the Tigers broke away from a 10-10 tie and kept the lead to force the fifth set.
New Bremen didn’t lose a set in its first four matches. Kramer got the first look at how her young team with two freshmen starters (Maeve Eilerman and Delaney Heitkamp), one sophomore starter (Kramer), two juniors (Ashtyn Eilerman, MariAna Meuther) and one senior (Annie Lefeld) would handle adversity.
New Bremen’s Ashtyn Eilerman celebrates a fifth-set block that helped her team build a 9-3 lead.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our team for digging deep,” Kramer said. “We haven’t faced a lot of adversity this year. It was good to see that we had some fight, that we could find a way to come back and win.”
The high-level play resulted in high numbers for players on both sides.
For New Bremen, Kramer had 17 kills and 17 digs, Muether had 14 kills and 11 digs, Ashtyn Eilerman had 12 kills and nine digs and Charlotte Nelson had 26 assists.
“Those three [Kramer, Muether, Eilerman] have to be the emotional leaders,” Diana Kramer said. “They touch the ball the most. They’re passing every ball and serve receive. They’re getting set the majority of balls in the front row. And those three girls showed up tonight, with their teammates making them better in big-time situations.”
On the Versailles side, Kiley May had 17 kills, Allie Wietholter had eight kills and Rowan Schmitmeyer and Allison Bergman had seven kills apiece.
“The effort was strong on both sides,” NcNeilan said. “And I think it’s a second-ball effort, too. It’s not giving up just after one swing, and you’re playing off the tips, you’re playing off the touches, off the blocks.”
Ask anyone who was there. They would all agree.
Crale Builders, in Sidney, is a proud sponsor of MAC and Shelby County League sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.