GALION — Coming into a road game against the league’s top team might intimidate some schools.
But Ontario embraced the role and came away with a tenacious five-set win over Galion in a Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference volleyball contest Tuesday night.
The Lady Warriors (9-5, 7-3) took the first set 25-19, but the Lady Tigers fought back to take the next two 25-18 and 25-22. From there it was all Ontario winning the fourth set 25-17, before taking the deciding set in a battle royale, 16-14.
“I can’t give enough credit to my girls. They had nothing to lose coming into this game,” said Ontario head coach Natalie Shell. “They fought every single point and didn’t give up. And I’m talking every single point because every point matters against a good team.”
The quick start played in favor of the visitors.
“When we started off games in the two sets we didn’t win, we started off slow. We couldn’t get ourselves out of a hole and that’s one thing we struggle with,” Shell said. “I’m OK coming in as the underdog. I’d rather be the underdog than being in the position Galion was in with nothing to lose.”
Galion (15-2, 9-1) maintains its one-game MOAC lead on Highland, which lost to Shelby, 3-1. The Lady Scots and Lady Tigers have a showdown looming this week.
“Any time you play Ontario, there’s always emotion because there’s a big game that everyone wants to win for Galion. Both teams played hard, but we made way too many mistakes,” Galion head coach Kathleen Scott said.
“We didn’t control what we can control as well as we have in the last couple of games. We’re going to just take it and learn from it. We have Highland on Thursday and that’s what we are going to look forward to.”
The Lady Warriors started strong thanks to senior Jastyn Allen. She and Sarah Wharton got key points in that first set to counter the 1-2 punch of Galion seniors Ashley Dyer and Hailey Young.
Wharton’s kill ended the first set.
In set two Galion took control and never looked back. A few mental errors by Ontario hurt its effort. Young’s kill tied the match at one set apiece. Galion took the third set after ties at 16, 17, 19, 20 and 21.
Ontario’s Taylor Dille, Wharton and Allen did a solid job winning points at the net.
“A huge difference maker (was) at the net. We missed a couple calls tonight, and that one is a game changer, and it really gave my girls that second breath.” Shell was referring to a reversed call at the net that gave her team a 15-14 lead in the deciding set. Galion fell behind 9-5 but rallied to tie it at 11-11 and 13-13.
“Jastyn and my other middle, something I told them both tonight was you gotta be huge at the net. They have two great hitters, two great hitters and everybody knows it,” Shell said. “I told them their one job tonight was to take those players out of the game and that’s exactly what they did.”
Young had 15 kills and Dyer 12 for Galion. Jillian Capretta added eight. For Ontario, Wharton had 14 kills and Allen and Weaver nine each.
Galion’s Madelyn Schieber was 19-of-20 serving and Capretta 18-of-20. For the Lady Warriors, Wharton was 18-of-20 serving, while Allen, Weaver and Taylor Counts combined for a 47-of-48 effort.
Audrey Glew had 14 digs for Galion, with Lena Creed getting 26 from her libero position.
After a tough loss, Scott said it’s important to look ahead.
“We’re not going to dread on it or let it bring us down. In the end it’s all about post-season and everybody wants that MOAC champion across their chest and that’s what we play for every night.”
Losing the first set made it tough on the Lady Tigers.
“The early start is probably what affected us the most. We’ve been talking all season about our mental game. We must come into every game playing as hard as we possibly can,” Scott said.
“The first set we swung at maybe four balls, and we can’t win against teams doing that. We’ll learn from it and move forward. Our league always gets us ready for the post-season and we just have to push ourselves.”
Ontario visits Pleasant on Thursday.
“We fought and fought, and we’ve come up short in a couple of close games, big games. And finally got the job done tonight,” Shell said.
Ontario also won the junior varsity match in three sets, 25-15, 25-27, 25-13.