Galion holds off Colonel Crawford, advances to district final

ATTICA — According to Galion coach Kathleen Davis, her team usually gets off to slow starts in matches.

“We’ve been doing that all season, it seems,” Davis said. “It seems like we keep getting down at the very beginning and we come back. Basically, every single second set. The second set has been one of our kryptonites for sure. We just keep pushing and we know that mentally we have to be tougher, and we’ve got to make sure that even though some teams get a couple of kills we have to get over it and move on.”

Colonel Crawford opened up a 16-11 lead over Galion before the Tigers came storming back to get the win. After the Eagles came back and captured the second game, 25-17, Galion won the critical third game, scoring the final three points of the set for a 28-26 win.

Galion closed out the match in the fourth set with a 25-14 win. The Tigers won in four, 25-22, 17-25, 28-26, 25-14 to win the Division III district semifinal Monday night.

With the win, second-seeded Galion improved to 23-2 on the season and will face top-seeded Huron (23-2) Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. back at Seneca East High School. Third-seeded Crawford finished its season with a 19-4 record.

Colonel Crawford coach Taylor Heiby said that errors, especially in the first two games, hurt her team. The Eagles had six service errors in the first game.

“That killed us in the first set because I think that first set was 25-22,” Heiby said. “And right there was our game. We should have been up 2-0 but, unfortunately, it happens.”

The third set proved to be the pivotal one for both teams. Crawford led 9-3 early on the serving of Abby Martin before Galion began to chop into the lead. The Tigers got kills from Ashley Dyer and Jillian Capretta before taking a 16-15 lead on a Madelyn Schieber serve.

Crawford tied the match at 16-16 on a Rylee Ritzhaupt kill.

From that point, the match went back and forth. The Eagles led 22-21 on a Reagan Ritzhaupt kill but the Tigers came back to take a 25-24 lead on a Schieber kill.

The Eagles took a 26-25 lead on a Rylee Ritzhaupt kill and a block from Martin and Ritzhaupt.

But the Tigers scored the final three points to win the set. Kills from Hailey Young and Kaya Capretta and a Schieber ace was the difference.

Both coaches pointed to the third game as pivotal.

“Once we lost that second set, I won’t lie, I got a little nervous,” Davis said. “The girls kind of got down on themselves and (CC) is probably the biggest blocking team we’ve seen since Highland. That really kind of slowed us down on the offense.

“We just did what we had to do to stay in the rallies as much as possible,” she added. “After the second set, I just told the girls ‘Hey, you worked all year, and we cannot be afraid to be great. We can’t be afraid to take chances, we can’t be afraid to push ourselves. So, in the third set, we came out swinging and it was awesome.”

Heiby felt that little mistakes hurt her team late in the game.

“We were up some points, and we were down a little bit,” Heiby said. “The little errors killed us in all of our sets. But unfortunately, I can’t be mad at my girls. My girls played so hard tonight. I told them in the locker room that we’ve had a phenomenal year, probably one of the best seasons that Colonel Crawford has seen in a very long time.

“Unfortunately, it was a heartbreaker, we did what we could do.”

Davis thought that the relative equality of both teams made for a close contest.

“If you look at our stats before the game, you will see that everything is right at the same level,” Davis said. “Same digs, same kills, so we knew coming in it wasn’t going to be easy. It is a Crawford County kind of thing. The girls were hyped all day long. So, it was awesome.”

Heiby said that her team gave everything it had.

“My block was awesome tonight,” Heiby said. “It was the best blocking game that my team has had. My hitters were very strong at the net, my outsides did a great job.

“I just told them, ‘You cannot hang your heads.’ This has been the best volleyball team that I’ve coached. They’re so fun to be around. They all play together very well. I have a great, great group of seniors. So, they are very special to me,” she added.