Parkway Outlasts St. Henry In Division VI State Semi-Final

The frustration continues as St. Henry suffered an unsteady start in their Division VI semi-final match with Parkway, caught fire in the the middle two sets, but fell short in the fifth and deciding set…when a All-State sophomore poured water on the fire.

Springfield, OH – The St. Henry Redskins saw their volleyball Final Four frustration continue Friday evening, falling short to MAC rival Parkway in a five-set match in the second Division VI state semi-final match at Wittenberg University.

It marked the fifth time since the Redskins had appeared in the OHSAA state Final Four since winning their last title in 2011 under then coach Diana Kramer, and it’s hardly a secret anymore.  It’s getting old to win twenty games annually, make it to the Final Four, and for one reason or another fail to bring home that coveted eighth state title – six under DeDe Stoner and one by Kramer, who played for Stoner.

Thursday’s five set loss (21-25, 25-16, 25-23, 23-25, and 10-15) marked the fifth time that Tricia Rosenbeck had brought the Redskins to the dance, with state runner-up success in 2021 and again in 2025…and losses in the semi-final round in 2015, 2023, and now 2026.

And it isn’t for a lack of sportsmanship, or character, or anything else.  You just get tired of that one thing happening, call it inexplicable or that which you can’t account for – don’t expect.  Hard to understand, much less explain.

Thursday, it was a stumbling start in the first set in which the Redskins served poorly, had too many attack errors (balls hit out of bounds), and just a sense of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.  This, a total reverse of how Rosenbeck’s team had played in the district and regional rounds, with impressive wins over Lima Perry, Marion Local, Crestview, Defiance Tinora, and Patrick Henry.

For certain, the Parkway Panthers had something to do with it.  At 23-3, all three of those losses came to MAC teams – St. Henry, Versailles, and Coldwater.  All had been highly contested and Versailles and Coldwater had gone five sets.  St. Henry won back in late September in four.

“We fought hard from beginning to end tonight,”  Rosenbeck tried to make sense of it Thursday.  “But we just didn’t take advantage of opportunities that they gave us.  They gave us some balls that we needed to put away and we didn’t.  And then they played some incredible defense.  Yeah, they played really, really well tonight.

“It’s hard to explain, and it’s frustrating.  I think our girls gave it their all and we just came out of it a little short.  A few plays here or there, some serving and hitting errors in the first set, and yeah…I wish it could have ended differently because we had a great season.  These girls fought, and grew, and got better.  Our seniors found a way to lead this team after not having a role on last year’s team.  And for them to come in and learn to lead the way they did, I’ll never forget it.”

Call it being too amped up, call it nerves, or call it just a bit out of whack, the numerous serve and hitting errors in the first set took something away – probably confidence.  And of course there’s that old adage about burning so much physical and emotional fuel to catch up that you don’t have enough to finish.  All of that must have had an affect on St. Henry who did catch up at the end, but picked a bad time to not play their best and fell, 25-21.

Set two was a complete reversal.  St. Henry jumped on Parkway quickly, built a double digit lead that at one time was 16-6.  They served better.  They hit better.  The defense picked up, along with the confidence.  Still, Parkway was not deterred, outscored St. Henry 10-7 over the last 17 points, but fell eventually, 25-16.

Imperceptible to some, perhaps, but the third set saw Parkway do as much to win the match while losing, as winning the fourth and fifth sets.  Again St. Henry got out to a positive start and built a 16-12 lead.  But Parkway then went on a 5-1 run, took an 18-17 lead, and really pressed the Redskins to hold on and win, with ties at 20, 21, 23, before Kylee Bollenbacher finally wedged a kill between two Panther defender for set point, 25-23.  Up now two games to one, it was a lead that didn’t feel like such an advantage.

Parkway, remember, is a very good volleyball team.  And their three losses during the season were all competitive.  And to Rosenbeck’s point about defense, the Panthers have a sophomore libero named Hadley Stover, who’s All-Ohio and all over the gym, saving points, digging up balls, and proving to be an impact by her very presence.  Stover is that rare example of a young player that has the total respect and admiration of every one of her teammates…because she means that much to the success of the team.

And Stover turned up the heat with the Parkway defense in the fourth set.  The Panthers reversed the start of the second and third sets, jumped out to a 17-9 lead…and suddenly you felt as if St. Henry had lost a bit of its edge – fatigue, perhaps.  Not the physical kind, but the mental kind.  The kind where you get tired of having Hadley Stover get her hands on everything you hit.

Once again, though St. Henry came back to tie at 23-23, they couldn’t get the final two points to touch the floor before hitting errors helped Parkway to a 25-23 win that tied the match.

The fifth set turned out to be a see-saw thing that saw seven ties and six lead changes…Parkway finally securing the advantage for good at 8-7…then 9-7…13-9…and finally 15-10 when they put match point someplace where St. Henry’s defense couldn’t get it.  Saturday the Panthers will play Dalton for the Division VI title.  Dalton (26-1) had previously beat Sugarcreek Garaway in straight sets.

“We kept capitalizing on their service and hitting mistakes in set one,”  said Parkway coach Jordan Hinkle, with 11 years and 160 wins with the Panthers.  “You have to take advantage of those mistakes when you’re playing at this level.  Set two was ugly to start, but we began to get some momentum and our foundation back in the middle of the set.  Set three was another tough start, but again we got a little bit of momentum back in the middle of the set.  And we’ve got a group of fighters and they’ve done this all year.  We lost three MAC games on the road against the three best teams in the MAC.  We’re battle tested, and you saw that tonight.

“Hadley Stover is first team All-Ohio in our division and there’s no libero better than her in my opinion.  Going into the fourth set tonight she had 38 digs.  I wonder if that isn’t a state record, but she’s incredible and a lot of times she goes unnoticed.  She’s just tenacious.  She’s incredible.

So the Panthers will play for their third state title in volleyball on Friday, another little known fact in the manner of Hadley Stover, perhaps.  Parkway won back-to-back titles in 1996 and 1997 – 29 years ago.  Much, much longer between drinks than that of St. Henry, but it didn’t feel that way Thursday.

Tricia Rosenbeck, disappointed as she was, nonetheless braved it and consoled each of her players, many of whom will return in 2027.  There’s only three seniors on her team.

And while Dalton is once-beaten (26-1), and hopeful for their first volleyball title in their first appearance in the title round, and against a MAC team, if you will, just not as well-known as St. Henry and Marion Local.   This will be no Uniontown Green…where there is no Hadley Stover, Savada Triplett and Megan Hughes.

And of course, no guarantees.  Titles come hard.

Inexplicably hard.  It’s hard to explain – understand.

You might say…frustrating!