They refused to let the ball touch the floor…New Bremen’s Carly Bushman left the court to save this point during a Cardinal run in the second set. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Down 19-8 in the first set, New Bremen sprinted through a dramatic comeback to take the set, and then the match, 3-1, in a Thursday night shocker.
St. Henry, OH – At the outset the odds were anything but favorable for New Bremen to even win a set in Thursday night’s MAC volleyball matchup between the youthful Cardinals and St. Henry, much less win the match in four sets.
The Minster Bank is proud to sponsor the best in area sports coverage on Press Pros Magazine.
St. Henry is one of the favorites to win the conference title as well as make a deep run in the post-season tournament.
New Bremen, despite four state titles in eight years, is a talented, but young team still learning to play, in coach Diana Kramer’s words.
And the Redskins got out to a 5-0 start in the first set as New Bremen stood flat-footed, and forced Kramer to call a timeout to administer, perhaps, some oxygen. And then they extended that lead to 8-0 before New Bremen could as much as score a point.
Things tumbled out of control for New Bremen, and when the lead grew to 19-8 Kramer and the Cardinals had little hope of scoring in double figures, much less making a concerted run at the Redskins’ lead.
But….
At 19-8 New Bremen somehow got life, went on a frenetic 12-1 run of their own, eventually tied St. Henry at 19-19, then went ahead 21-19 as the stunned St. Henry bench stared in amazement at the scoreboard with each additional New Bremen point. St. Henry gathered itself to tie at 23-23, only to have Bremen’s Adi Albers apply the finishing touches to the miraculous comeback with a thunderous kill, leading 24-23, to win 25-23.
“Confidence is key”…New Bremen’s Maria Kramer steers a kill between St. Henry blockers during the Cardinals’ 12-1 run in the first set.
“Confidence is key,” said Diana Kramer, afterwards. “We didn’t have it, they did, and then we put a little pressure on them with that run. We earned some points and things started to spiral out of control. Volleyball’s a game of momentum and we found it at the right time. They had it at the beginning, we caught fire, and I really don’t remember what happened. I’ve seen some comebacks like that, but for a team lacking in varsity experience as we are, in a hostile gym like this, I couldn’t be more proud of a team and a win right now.”
St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck graciously added her own explanation on what could be nothing less than yanking defeat from the jaws of victory. What triggered such a turnaround?
“They’re aggressive servers, they started winning first contact (serve/receive), they got momentum, we backed down a bit and were less aggressive. And like she [Kramer] said, volleyball is a game of momentum. Once they got momentum they weren’t letting things hit the floor and they started swinging like they weren’t at the beginning of the match.”
And she added, “It’s frustrating.”
Rarely in volleyball do you see such a dominant start and lead slip away in the manner of New Bremen’s win in the first set, and ultimately a surprising 3-1 win for the match.
Because in this instance it came against one of the best teams in Ohio Division VI volleyball. Rosenbeck’s Redskins are athletic, experienced, and annually motivated by a series of close misses for the past five seasons going back to their appearance in the 2021 OHSAA Final Four when they lost to New Knoxville in four sets.
St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck watches anxiously as the ‘Skins 19-8 first set lead withers away.
New Bremen, of course, has won the OHSAA title in Division IV and VII four times since 2017, and came out with that same confidence and momentum again in the second set, jumping out to a 10-4 start, literally as if they’d found another gear. They forced St. Henry to respond to three and four-point runs, and played with incredible effort on defense to extend points and deny the ball from touching the floor.
St. Henry did answer in effort, and fought its way back to within a couple of points before losing the second set, again by 25-23, to fall behind two sets to none. A good crowd that had come to see two of the state’s best sat stunned, amazed at what they were witnessing from a New Bremen team that experience-wise, was hardly a match for St. Henry.
But St. Henry found its edge again to start the third set, relying on the defensive efforts of senior Morgan Baumer and the hitting of Molly Wendel. And some of the emotion and energy seemed to have worn off from New Bremen’s torrid first two games.
St. Henry opened up a lead of 16-9, only to see New Bremen creep back to within four, at 17-13. Coaches talk about serving – serve/receive – and getting teams out of system. St. Henry suddenly had it, and New Bremen didn’t as the Cardinals were denied another comeback bid and fell in the third set, 25-19.
St Henry’s Morgan Baumer takes flight to deny a New Bremen point in the third set. The Redskins won it, 25-19.
But it didn’t last. Once again New Bremen started the fourth set with an 8-2 spurt as mental and physical fatigue began to take its toll on both teams. Shots were falling just out of the reach of St. Henry defenders as New Bremen suddenly found the range with some aggressive shot-making.
St. Henry staged a 4-1 run to close to within 9-6, but New Bremen scored on a series of quick sets and kills at the net that wiped out St. Henry’s run. They traded points down the stretch, but St. Henry could never get beyond a five-point deficit…until the very end. When at 23-22 New Bremen scored the final two points to take the game and match, 25-22.
“Our team is really, really good,” said Tricia Rosenbeck, post-game, choosing her words through the frustration of losing that 19-8 lead to start the match. “We have a good mixture of experience and youth, we’re learning every single day, and our seniors are trying to lead the way.
Huffer Chiropractic can help your athlete perform at their best. Schedule your appointment with our office in Osgood.
“But volleyball can be a mindset thing, and tonight I know they were ready to play…but it’s just finding a way to win games when we’re up 19-8 in game one. Not letting a 12-1 run happen in a match this big. I think it will come, because we have a lot of experience, but we have a lot of youth, too. We’re learning, and we’ll be fine.”
St. Henry’s Karlee Baumer snaps off a shot during the ‘Skins win in the third set.
But frustrating is an understatement, as the highly-anticipated Redskins are suddenly 4-2 for the season, and now 0-1 in MAC play.
Conversely, New Bremen has played its way to a 5-0 start and stands 1-0 in MAC play, and an unexpected 1-0, at that.
“It was frustrating,” Rosenbeck fumed, her competitive nature exposed. “But there were good things, too. There were some good chunks in every game where we put points together. But we can’t let teams put [chunks] of twelve points together, either. That can’t happen.”
Her parting words as she stood alone in the hall outside the gym: “I’m not going to sleep tonight…”
And little wonder!
Lefeld Welding Supplies proudly sponsors high school sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.