WILLARD — Kendra Snook won her 300th game as Monroeville volleyball coach. And she won it at a crucial time.
The Eagles dominated the net as senior outside hitter Maddie Daniel recorded 21 kills. Monroeville dropped Buckeye Central in straight sets, 25-19, 25-20 and 25-15 to win the Division IV district semifinal Tuesday night.
With the win, the second-seeded Eagles (20-4) advanced to the district final and will face top seeded Seneca East on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Seneca East High School. The Tigers blanked fifth-seeded Lucas, 3-0.
The sixth-seeded Buckettes finished their season with a 12-13 record. But BC loses just one senior this season, so the future is bright.
Snook said that winning her 300th game was a great tribute to the players she has coached over the years.
“It’s such an exciting feat to have such great athletes in the past and current athletes and all the hard work they’ve done,” Snook said. “And to help me along the way, they believe in me and our coaching staff. That’s how we were able to be successful.”
The young Buckettes were in every match, but the Eagles ability to dominate the match at the net led to runs that took BC out of each set.
“We’ve got a lot of touches on the ball and their big hitter (Mia McDougal) is a stud and there’s no way to stop her; we tried to put some hands in there to slow her down a little bit and I thought our defense did a nice job around her,” Snook added.
Buckeye Central coach Missy McDougal agreed with her counterpart.
“They’re a good, aggressive team and we didn’t have much of answer for Maddie Daniel tonight,” McDougal said. “She had a great game. We didn’t play well. We competed but we didn’t play well.”
Monroeville opened the match with an 8-1 run to take command early. Daniel got two kills and Claire Cherry and Alexa Adams each added a kill in the run.
BC made a run midway through that run to trim the lead to 16-11. McDougal and freshman Adrienne Jury each got kills and McDougal added a block for a score.
Buckeye cut the lead further to 23-19 on a Mara McDougal block but the Eagles closed out the set.
In the second set, the Buckettes used a Kennedy Deppen block to trim Monroeville’s lead to 8-7 and got a kill from Kimmy Biglin to take a 10-9 lead.
But two Daniel kills midway through the set allowed Monroeville to take a 14-12 lead before a Mara McDougal ace tied the game at 15-15.
But three Daniel kills gave the Eagles control of the set as Monroeville pulled away.
“The girls went out there, they gave it everything they had,” McDougal said. “We got a slow start. We’re young and we had some nerves to start out with.
“We got ourselves back in that first set even though they won and played with teams all year,” she added. “We played with these guys again. We just can’t finish. I think that (was) attributed a lot to our youth.”
BC got two more kills in the third set from Mia McDougal to take a 10-8 lead midway through the set. But Monroeville went on a 6-0 run, getting three more kills from Daniel to take a 15-10 lead.
BC was never in the set after that.
Mia McDougal paced the Buckettes with eight kills and five blocks for points.
“We only had two girls with any experience, and it was a different environment for these girls,” McDougal said. “One thing I talked to them in the locker room was to continue to get better this off-season because we only lose one girl, and we get everyone else back and we can be more competitive next year and hope we learn how to finish.”
But both coaches agreed that the Eagles’ senior outside hitter was the difference in the match.
“(Daniel) is obviously our go-to, our leader on the court, our leader on the court,” Snook said. “She takes control of the game and it’s her senior year, so she has that focus and is laser-focused every single point.”
“(Monroeville is) a good, aggressive team and we didn’t have much of answer for Maddie Daniel tonight,” McDougal said. “She had a great game. We didn’t play well. We competed but we didn’t play well.”