WILLARD — The rematch is set.
The Buckeye Central volleyball team dominated Seneca East, 25-14, 25-8, 25-12, in the semifinal round of the Division IV district tournament Tuesday night.
With the win, the state’s fourth-ranked team improved to 23-1 overall. The Buckettes will face Monroeville (20-4) on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Willard High School.
The Buckettes’ only loss this season came Sept. 18 in Monroeville when the Eagles dropped the Buckettes in four games.
Since that time, the Buckettes have run roughshod over the rest of their schedule, riding a 13-match win streak into the district. In fact, just Mohawk won a game during that streak.
But Monroeville has always been in the background for the Buckettes.
BC coach Missy McDougal said that her team learned a great deal from that loss.
“(Monroeville has) two great hitters,” McDougal said. “We’re going to make a few adjustments. But the biggest thing is we can’t get down on ourselves. They’re going to get some big monster kills. They swing hard but if we adjust, keep each other up and keep playing, we can do it together.
“But we’re really excited about trying to avenge that loss,” McDougal added.
Still, the district final will be the biggest game of the year for the Buckettes.
“We have six seniors that this is, potentially, their last game,” McDougal added. “You can come out and play scared or you can play like you’re capable of. I know that they are going to be ready to come out here and play hard.
“The past is the past and we have to come out Thursday and be ready to move on,” she added.
Her team had little trouble with the Tigers Tuesday night, and Seneca East coach Greg Hendrix said he knew what his team was facing.
“We’ve faced these girls in the last couple of years and they’re a senior-laden team with no holes,” Hendrix said. “You have to put the ball on the floor and make great plays because they’re not going to make any mistakes.
“They’re just a well-disciplined team that is a fantastic defensive team.”
Seneca East led just once in three games, coming in the opening portion of the third game, at 5-3 on a Ryleigh Stanley kill.
From there, the Buckettes scored the next seven points, all coming on Claudia Pifher serves, and were never challenged.
“You saw the difference between a veteran team out there and a young team,” Hendrix said. “We’ve got freshmen at every key position out there and all season long they have been trying to find themselves. We just can’t maintain from A to Z. It’s like a roller-coaster, up and down.
“But for the season we had, with all the inexperience we had, we only had one rotational player back, for these kids to get to districts, I couldn’t be more proud. The kids did a great job.”
McDougal said that the Tigers were a scrappy team.
“I thought Seneca East did a nice job of digging balls up,” McDougal said. “They kept the ball alive, and the girls just kept coming.
“They were scrappy the first two times we played them. I watched them on film, and we just wanted to be aggressive and keep hitting.”
BC dominated the first game, scoring 17 of 21 points midway through the first game, mostly on serves of Mara McDougal, and added a kill from Mia McDougal to close out the first game.
The second game was all BC, as the Buckettes scored 19 of the first 22 points. Ten straight points came on the serve of Lauren Mann and five more came from Pifher’s serves.
Mackenzie Phenicie used a kill to close out the game.
“We came out here with the expectation to beat these guys, we wanted to stay focused and not begin thinking about Thursday night. It’s easy to do that,” McDougal said.
McDougal was really pleased with the way her team passed the ball.
“They did a phenomenal job in the back row. We moved the ball around tonight, too,” McDougal said. “The blockers wanted to get a few more hands on them but they did a nice job.”