Loramie Overcomes Horrible Start, Storms Back To Win State Semi-Final In Straight Sets

Down 9-1 at the outset of the match, Fort Loramie righted the ship in time to sweep Newark Catholic in straight sets Thursday…will face Tiffin Calvert in Friday Division VII final.

Fairborn, OH – The most ardent, or fervent, Loramie fan cannot deny…that it didn’t look good at the outset of Thursday’s Division VII semi-final match with Newark Catholic at the Nutter Center.

They were down 6-0 before they even scored.  Coach Kelly Hoying called a timeout, and reminded her seniors that it’s one and done for their volleyball careers if they didn’t get it done today.

Team physician Sheldon Wical was caught staring at his shoes when the score reached 9-1.

But guess what?  Hoying’s prognosis worked – turned things around.

The ‘Skins, ranked as high as #2 in the state for most of the year, began to overcome their nerves…got the concrete out of their shoes…played like the team that won in the epic 5-set win over Russia last week in the regional final.

“And we were concerned about that when they were down 9-1,”  said Newark Catholic coach Katie Chapman.  “We knew they were a good team.  We knew that they had a variety of hitters.  And we knew it was only a matter of time when they got over the nerves and started playing.”

Loramie crawled back to 14-9.

Senior Charleigh Albers helped out with some aggressive serves that tied up Newark on the other end.  Before the long they were only down 17-15.

Then 19-18.

Newark called a timeout and Chapman pleaded for her girls to seize the moment, and the luxury of having a lead.  But to no avail.

Moments later Tessa Boerger tipped the net with a serve that fell harmlessly to the floor for the tying point…suddenly it was 24-24.

Wical looked up, saw the score, and smiled.  He knew.

They all knew.

Newark tied it at 25, but Loramie creeped back ahead at 26-25.  And when Chloe Bruns directed a kill at the feet of the Newark libero, Calla Whitlatch, it was more than just set point.  Loramie took the set 27-25, and literally the heart out of a Newark team that finished 21-6 for the season…against as many quality opponents in central Ohio as a Division VII school can find these days.

“Now watch,”  Lehman Catholic coach Carolyn Danmeyer said, watching from the front row at the end of the court.  “Lonnie (Cain) and I coach a lot of these girls in the off-season, and we know what they can do.”

And they (Loramie) did it.

In the second set it was Loramie that got off to the flying start, went out to a 7-4 lead, quickly to 15-8, and then off the work of Charleigh Albers at the service line the Redskins went on a run to 21-15 to put further stress on Chapman and the Green Wave.

Teams like Fort Loramie and New Bremen live off the theory of risk/reward.  Serve hard, hit aggressively, and take your chances that your motor skills are up to the moment.

Albers did not let them down.  Serving as well as one could wish, the Redskins finished out the match on an Addie Barhorst serve to take the set, 25-18.

“I’m just really proud of the girls for how they battled,”  said Hoying, afterwards.  “It’s hard to get here, and you have to fight through every moment.  They trusted each other.  That’s what I told the seniors, I think, when it was 9-1.  This was their game, trust each other, and they don’t get a next year if it doesn’t go well.”

Albers, Boerger, and Corynn Hoelscher made sure from that point that it did go well.

Newark showed their own qualities in the third and final set, battling to stay in range while hoping for that one surge of momentum that might give them a lead and extended life should they win the set.

But every time the Green Wave would make a short run, Loramie would answer with a longer run.

“It was so hard to get out of regionals,”  said Hoying.  “I think that experience made today easier because it wasn’t a rival and it wasn’t such a community expectation.”

They finished it with a flourish at 25-19, and with a kill that seared as it cleared the net and fell in a spot where Newark couldn’t only watch, and wish.

Albers, Hoelscher, and Isabelle Hoying led them with 36 combined kills for the match.

Fort Loramie finished with attack efficiency of 64%, an outstanding percentage, compared to 49% for Newark.

And, they finished with the satisfaction of knowing that what they’ve been through to get here more than prepares them for the state’s #1 in Tiffin Calvert, who always won Thursday in straight sets over Northside, out of Columbus.

“It’s so hard to get out of the regional you want to take a deep breath when you get to the Nutter Center,”  smiled Kelly Hoying.

“Because it’s not a rival of ours I feel like tomorrow will be less of an emotional game, I guess,”  added Charleigh Albers.

Loramie has 26 hours to regroup before Friday final at the Nutter Center, where they’ll play for their third state title, overall, and their second in three years.

Tiffin Calvert is the gold standard of Division VII volleyball, along with New Bremen, as the two have pretty dictated the gold trophy presentation since 2017., having won in 2018, ’20, and ’25.  New Bremen has won four times in the off years that Calvert didn’t.

Lori Rombach has coached at Calvert for nine years and her cumulative record during that time is 235-15.

Kelly Hoying is 40-10 in her two years at Loramie, and doesn’t seem concerned about the disparity.

After all, when you’re down 9-1 at the state tournament and you can find a way to come back and win – against a team with nine state titles – and 23 semi-final appearances – why doubt?

The best you can hope for is that risk/reward is working for you at 6 pm tomorrow.

When #1 meets #2 in Division VII.