SHELBY — New London coach Sarah Thomas wasn’t sure how long it has been since the Wildcats had been to a district volleyball tournament. But she is sure of one thing: Her team is headed to the regional tournament.
The Wildcats trailed two sets to one against top-seeded Buckeye Central but came storming back in the final two sets to come away with a 19-25, 25-22, 17-25, 26-24, 15-13 win in the final of the Division VI district Wednesday night.
It’s the first time that the Wildcats have reached the regional tournament since 1994.
New London (13-12) will face top-seeded New Bremen on Oct. 31 at Fostoria High School. New Bremen downed Minster, 3-0.
The Buckettes ended its season at 19-6.
Thomas felt that her team got better as the match went on.
“The first set tonight, you could tell there were nerves,” Thomas said. “We had to shake those nerves out. In the second set, we definitely regained our composure. We relied more on our training and our discipline and control. We did a really good job of communication.
“This team, there’s no quit in them,” Thomas added. “Hustle plays are just crazy. The way they just throw their body at the ball, and they have no concern over their health. It’s a great team of girls, and they don’t care whose scoring ball as long as someone is scoring the ball. It’s definitely a team effort.”
Buckeye Central coach Missy McDougal said that, while her team never stopped fighting, they may have looked past the Wildcats.
“(New London) was hungry to win; they hadn’t been here in I don’t know how many years,” McDougal said. “I think our girls may have been a little complacent; thought they were going to come in here and win. They were the number one seed and things just didn’t go quite our way.
“We battled, we fought,” she added. “We did what we could do and tonight it just wasn’t enough.”
The Buckettes led in each of the first four sets but couldn’t put the second and fourth sets away.
In the first set, BC jumped out to a 13-5 lead on a point from Megan Siefert, and the Wildcats never really got back in the game. BC scored the final three points of the set on Olivia Bishop serves.
In the second set, BC held a 9-8 lead on a Maren McDougal serve, but New London got three straight kills by Pailee Wilson to take back the lead. Buckeye held a 21-19 lead late in the game on two Siefert points, but New London got kills from Gracie Thomas, Madison Rowland, Thomas, and Hailie Pylant to take the set.
The third set was nip-and-tuck throughout. New London jumped to a 7-1 lead early, but the Buckettes came storming back to grab a 14-12 advantage on a Maren McDougal kill and a Bishop ace.
An Emma Keller kill gave the Buckettes a 21-16 lead late. From there, BC got kills from Adrienne Jury, Keller, and two Mara McDougal kills to win the set.
BC had a golden opportunity to win the match in the fourth set, as Jury gave BC a 21-20 lead with a kill.
BC led, 24-23, with the serve on a Maren McDougal ace, but the Wildcats scored the final three points of the set, one coming on a Thomas kill, to win the set and send to a fifth set.
“I’m proud of the girls,” McDougal said. “We didn’t give up at all. We just kept playing until the last point. We had a chance there. We only needed one more to tie it back up.
“We had opportunities. We shouldn’t have let it go to five. In the two sets we lost, I think we were ahead most of the time. We just kind of fell apart.”
In the fifth set, the Wildcats jumped out to a 7-4 lead on a Thomas block. After Keller scored a kill to cut the lead to 7-5, New London scored four of the next five points on kills from Thomas, Raeann Mitchell, and Brooke Clouse to grab a 10-6 lead.
New London held a 14-9 lead and had five chances to win the match. But the Buckettes came back.
BC got two kills from Mara McDougal and a Jury ace to trim the lead to 14-13. But New London got the final point to end the match.
Thomas said that her team has grown in the second half of the season.
“We’ve grown as a team and we’ve learned how to trust each other,” Thomas said. “We worked a lot, this season, on control. We had five returners, and we had some girls playing volleyball for the first time and they really figured it out when it counted.
“We’ve gotten some great plays out of players that are in their first year on varsity, and our returners have done a great job leading those girls. Everyone has just jelled together, and it has been a great second-half of the season.”
McDougal said that her team wasn’t sharp.
“We weren’t crisp again,” McDougal said. “We’ve just been a little bit off. I wish I had answers; I would have changed something. It just wasn’t our night; it just wasn’t meant to be. I thought we had some good spurts. We just didn’t finish tonight.”