GALION — The Lady Tigers overcame a sluggish start and a stubborn county rival Wednesday night. In the end, Galion (20-2) took down Wynford in three sets, 25-20-, 25-19, 25-15, to win the Division III volleyball sectional final on its home court.
The Lady Royals took a 3-0 lead before the two squads battled through 12 ties in the first set.
An 8-3 run gave the Lady Tigers the first set. Jillian Capretta’s block pushed Galion’s lead to 21-17.
“We definitely got off to a slow start tonight,” Galion head coach Kathleen Davis said. “We didn’t come out like want to, but we got back into our realm and into how we know how to play.
“Before going into set 3, I told the girls stop being fancy. Go back to what we’re good at. We’re smart players; play smart.”
Galion, the No.2 seed, meets third-seed Colonel Crawford in the Division III district semifinal at Seneca East High School at 7:30 p.m. on Monday. The Lady Eagles topped fifth-seed Western Reserve in three sets.
“They’re really hurt. But I’m doubtful that Galion thought a seven seed would come out and make them work for everything they got,” Wynford head coach Clara Adelsperger said.
The Royals end their season at 9-14.
“Even down 10 and they’ve got 24 points, and we’re running all over the place, getting good touches on the block and I couldn’t ask for a better. I know we lost, but we probably played our best this week as we have all season,” Adelsperger said.
The quick start fueled Wynford.
“We had a lot of energy coming out. We had some great swings with our defense. Our blocks weren’t necessarily closed, but our defense was definitely getting some close touches. They had to work for every inch they had.”
Wynford took a 6-0 lead in set 2 before the hosts rallied to tie it at 11, 12, 14 and 17. A block by sophomore Madelyn Schieber made it 18-17 in favor of Galion as an 8-3 run closed it out for the Lady Tigers.
“I tried to get them to embrace the underdog role tonight. We felt like there was no pressure. We’ve not won a sectional in eight years, so we were like, why not now.”
Galion got a kill from Hailey Young to spark the third set, setting off 9-4 spurt leading to the win despite the sluggish start.
“We still pulled it off,” Davis said. “In the end we were able to fight through it. I hope we weren’t (looking ahead). We talked about in practice a lot — that at tournament time there’s always upsets. March Madness. There’s always upsets.
“They are one of the scrappiest teams we’ve seen all season,” Davis said. “We hit the ball hard a lot of times and it goes down. So, when they’re putting it over from all the way on the back wall it’s kind of crazy when you think about it.”
The net play also was solid for Wynford, Adelsperger said, for most of the game.
“Their blockers were kind of — you could tell by the end — were kind of getting tired. For our size, we were putting on some good blocks. I was pretty happy with that.”
The Lady Royals had their share of ups and downs this season.
“We started off really strong and we definitely went through a pretty rough stretch the second half of the season,” Adelsperger said.
“But this week I couldn’t be happier with how we finished. We finished really strong.”
She said good-bye to six senior starters — Emma Steiger, Grace Stucky, Reese McGuire, Clareese Prenger, Katelyn Wagner and Aleece Filliater.
“Those are going to be huge shoes to fill next year. Grace and our middles were making solid blocks. Aleece became a really, solid dominant inside hitter for us.”
Stucky had six kills, Steiger and Filliater five each. Wagner and Stucky had three blocks apiece. McGuire had 21 digs and Steiger 19.
Next up for Galion is neighboring Colonel Crawford.
“We have to make sure we are pushing ourselves in every single match. We gotta make sure we are playing our game no matter who’s on the other side,” Davis said.