ATTICA — Galion got a taste of the regional volleyball tournament last year.
That taste made them hungry for a return trip this year.
The No. 2 seeded Tigers took another step in that direction by fending off pesky No. 3 seed Willard, 3-1, by scores of 22-25, 25-23, 25-15, 25-20, in the district semifinal at Seneca East High School.
Galion advances to face Huron in the district final Wednesday back at Seneca East.
The Flashes didn’t go easy, hanging tough in a nip-and-tuck first set. Willard (16-8) was finally able to ease out to a 21-17 lead late and hold on for a 25-22 win.
“We gave them way too many points at the end of the first set,” Galion coach Kathleen Davis said. “We looked and we gave them 15 points that we just can’t do at this point of the season.”
From there, the Tigers began to wear down the Flashes with their ball movement and variety of hitters.
“Game 1, we had everything going our way,” Willard coach Ashley Bond said. “Game 2, we did until the end. We didn’t get a call. Once we didn’t get that call, everything shifted the other way. And in volleyball, once you lose momentum, you’ve lost everything. But we couldn’t swing it back after that game 2.”
The score in the second set was tied at 22-22, but Galion (21-2) scored four of the last five points to win, 25-23, and tie the match at 1-1.
Junior Jillian Capretta helped lead the charge. Capretta took advantage of the ball movement and the presence of other hitters, teammates Hailey Young and Ashley Dyer.
“It was an intense game,” Capretta said. “Everyone getting kills really just motivated the next person to get an even harder and faster kill.”
The third set was like the first two until the Tigers, leading by a slim 15-14, went on a six-point run to stretch the lead to 21-14, then closed it out scoring four of the last five points, to win, 25-15.
“I think that’s what’s big for us as a Galion team is that we spread the ball well,” Davis said. “We make sure we mix it up. That way, people aren’t seeing the same thing every single time. People aren’t anticipating this person always gets the ball, so that person’s going to get blocked 90 percent of the time.”
“They switched their lineup,” Bond said of the Tigers. “They switched to have their best hitter against our worst blocker. So, we tired to counter that in Game 2, but it’s really hard to adjust when you’re used to everything and then try to switch everything at the last minute.”
Galion trailed just once in the final set — at 5-4 — before going on a 7-1 run to go up 11-6. Willard never got closer than four points from there.
“We told the girls you’ve got to control what you can control and if we’re making errors, we’re giving them free points, and we just can’t do that,” Davis said. “We took it and regrouped and just made sure we played our game and stuck with it.”
“I think it was the energy we had to expend in Game 1,” Bond said of the loss. “In game 1 and Game 2, no matter what, every point was a tradeoff. It was 1-1, it was 2-2, it was 3-3. You look up at the scoreboard, it’s tied or you’re up one or down one. In Game 3, when they went on that little bit of a run, that little bit of a run changed our mental approach to the game, and it changed everything in that little run.”
Galion earned a rematch with No. 1 seed Huron, which downed Oak Harbor, 3-0, in the other semifinal match. The same two teams played in the district final last year, with Galion prevailing.
“(Huron) always has a strong program,” Davis said. “It was a nice nail-biter last year, with a five-setter. So, we’ve just gotta make sure we prepare tomorrow and make sure that we come in and ready to play our game and just kind of control our side and stay point-for-point.”
“We are ready to play them,” Capretta said of Huron. “They’re a really tough opponent. We saw that last year. But we know what we want to do. We’re going to come out and we’re going to win.”