NEW WASHINGTON (Crawford County Now) — After a thrilling come-from-behind win over rival Colonel Crawford two nights earlier to get to the title game, Buckeye Central welcomed West Division winner Tiffin Calvert Thursday night in the inaugural Northern 10 Championship.
The Senecas, ranked No. 1 in Division VII by the Ohio High School Volleyball Coaches Association, came in undefeated having not dropped a single set this season — the closest anyone got was 23 points, that was set two against No. 4 in Division II Anthony Wayne — and showed why they are expected to defend their state title with a 25-12, 25-17, 25-14 win over the Buckettes.
It was Calvert’s 40th consecutive win — their last loss was the 2024 state championship against Fort Loramie — and 65th straight win in the regular season dating back to Oct. 7, 2023, when the then-Division IV Senecas fell to Division I Magnificat in four sets on the road.
“We love the N10,” Calvert coach Lori Rombach said. “From a travel standpoint along it has been wonderful for our school … the travel in the SBC versus travel in the N10 is night and day, so we really enjoy that.
“But the competition has been great, the schools have been great … we love it, I’m grateful to be in the N10.”
For a team that has dropped just four sets over the last two seasons combined, Rombach knows good competition when she sees it and having to beat two state-ranked opponents in the West Division home and away to get to this title bout shows the strength of the new-look Northern 10.
“Everybody wants to compete, no team wants to go in and dominate an opponent 25-2 just like an opponent doesn’t want to get beat 25-2,” Rombach said. “You want to have competition; you want to have struggles and adversity … and we had it all season long.
“I don’t know how Buckeye Central isn’t ranked, they played great tonight. Their libero is amazing, and (coach) Paige (Caudill) does a good job of keeping them believing and not giving up. They fought through to the very end, and it was a fun match to play.”
And it was a learning experience for the Senecas, too. After taking the first set in relatively quick fashion, they found themselves down 7-1 in the second set and forced Rombach into taking a timeout. Whatever she said worked as they proceeded to go on a 15-6 run and force Caudill into a timeout before closing out by taking nine of the final 13 points.
“The girls stayed together, they figured stuff out, and those are the things that I’m most proud of,” Rombach said. “In that situation when we were down six points, I didn’t see anybody frantic on their face or turning on each other … those are the things that are victories for me. That’s what a coach wants, she wants a team to stay together when there’s adversity and I think the girls stayed together and they fought through that adversity.
“You preach about that in practice, but then to actually see the girls handle adversity — we can lose a set, it’s OK to lose a set — we have a good thing going right now and you can’t lose sight of the biggest picture.”
That second set surge from the hosts was exactly what Caudill was hoping to see after dropping the opener.
“We talk about taking opportunities when they come to us and to be ready when opportunities come to you,” she said. “That was an opportunity for quite an extended time and the girls played wonderfully through it.”
Calvert’s Gracie Miller took over the third set serving eight consecutive points to stretch a lead the Senecas would never relinquish. She is just one of several standouts on arguably the most balanced team in the state.
Entering Thursday’s match they had three girls with 100-plus kills and two more at 95, Miller was approaching 100 aces with three others at 20-plus, four girls have more than 100 digs, three with over 100 receptions, and Bryn Dircksen has just shy of 600 assists … all in a mere 57 sets played.
“They are a team of multiple people you’ve gotta keep control of, as well as having a setter that’s a 5-1 … and you’ve gotta treat her as a hitter because she’s an attacking setter,” Caudill said. “They just have an arsenal.”
And this wasn’t the first time these teams have met, either. The Buckettes traveled to Calvert six weeks ago in a crossover match scoring 11, 16, and eight points in the loss. The difference between that match and this one was significant.
“I feel like our block improved as the night went on and we were figuring it out to get hands on balls,” Caudill said. “And our serve-receive was lights out better than last time we saw them, so that’s much improved.
“For the next few weeks, you’ve gotta sharpen your saw. You want to play teams like that before the tournament. Teams like Crawford that you have to pay attention the whole game … that gets you ready for tournaments as opposed to someone you could just walk out, do your serves and be done, that gains you nothing. These types of games, even though the outcome isn’t what we wanted, gains us something.”
And though the Buckettes end the regular season on a loss, they’re still 18-4 overall and East Division champs boasting just one senior on the roster.
“Our sophomores — eight of them — started off very green, even our juniors started off green,” Caudill said. “But they are no longer that, they’ve gone past being a sophomore, they’re experienced players now. And they act like it, they have composure, they want to win, and they’re disciplined.
“That’s going to hopefully take us where we need to go.”