Shawnee’s Karleigh Hutchins digs the ball against Ottawa-Glandorf earlier this season.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
KALIDA — Lima Shawnee junior Addie Kriegel and senior Sydney Burris combined on a block to score the match point as the Indians held off Bowling Green, 21-25, 25-21, 24-26, 25-20, 18-16, in a Division III District final at Kalida High School Thursday.
“Tonight, it’s a team win because Bowling Green is a very good team,” Shawnee coach Brooke Hutchins said. “It could have gone either way.”
Hutchins said Kriegel and Burris’ play to finally finish off a marathon match showed focus.
“I think it was just dialing in,” Hutchins said. “We had talked the whole time — they are an above-the-net playing team. They’ve got a lot of leapers, a lot of very athletic girls, and I think talking in the huddle that we just needed to get and find their target early was going to be very advantageous.”
Shawnee (19-6) advances to the Norwalk regional tournament next Thursday, where they will play Toledo St. Ursula at 8 p.m. BG sees its season end at 17-8.
Shawnee’s 5-foot-9 junior hitter Karleigh Hutchins was the player the Bobcats could not shut down due to her ability to score on a kill from anywhere on the court.As a team, Shawnee had 62 kills and Hutchins supplied 60% of them with 37.
“We just really struggled on trying to shut down that No. 3 (Karleigh Hutchins),” said Mathias. “She swung in the front row. She swung out of the back row, and we really struggled shutting her down.
“She was the one key. She was hard to stop. They just had a little bit too many offensive weapons for us tonight.”
One might argue that Karleigh Hutchins is better at hitting from the back row than she is from the front row. She says it is a skill set that she has had to develop.
“It is definitely an adjustment, but you have to time it right and just get the ball — wait for it, and go get it,” Hutchins said.
Coach Hutchins added, “She’s a gamer. She’s very precise. She’s a perfectionist, but they were triple blocking her, in the back row, too.”
Leipsic fights off P-G
BENTON RIDGE – In Monday’s second District semifinal at Liberty-Benton, No. 2 seed Leipsic defeated No. 4 seed Pandora-Gilboa in four sets – 25-18, 11-25, 25-18, 25-21.
After Leipsic won the first set 25-18, P-G bounced back and won the second set in convincing fashion, 25-11.
However, the Vikings responded with hard-fought wins in the next two sets and clinched the victory.
“If you could erase that second set and start over, that would have been good,” Leipsic coach Brent Newel said with a grin. “We just didn’t play our best in that second set. When you have 15 errors in one set against a really good team, the score kind of shows that.
“But I was super proud of the reset button that we got after that second set and came out after the third set having kind of a nice lead. I’m just super proud of their effort. They beat us pretty bad (in the second set). So, to come back from that, I was really proud of that effort.”
Danaysia Danzy led Leipsic with 21 kills, 16 digs and two blocks. Karmyn Brough recorded 33 assists and three aces. Jaelynn Siefer had 24 digs and four aces for the Vikings.
For P-G, Corrin Luginbill had 17 kills, while teammate Ava Huffman recorded 41 digs.
Ottoville pulls out PCL rematch
BENTON RIDGE – The Ottoville and Miller City volleyball programs are very familiar with each other.
A couple weeks ago in a regular-season match, it took Ottoville five sets to defeat Miller City.
In Monday’s Division VII district semifinal at Liberty-Benton, No. 1 seed Ottoville squared off once again with No. 3 seed Miller City.
This match had very similar results.
Once again, Miller City gave Ottoville all it could handle before the Big Green managed to put the Wildcats away in four sets – 25-19, 25-22, 23-25, 25-22.
“When you get to this point in our tournament, you know with the four teams coming in, that anyone can really come out of it. So, we knew that coming in,” Ottoville coach Alexis Lautzenheiser said. “It kind of put the pressure on us, and we were able to come out with the win. Our girls played with aggression. We were able to attack and hit the ball the way we like to, and we stayed in (the) system for the most part. So, kudos to them.”
Carly Thorbahn led Ottoville with 13 kills, two serving aces and 16 digs. Kendall Schnipke hammered 13 kills and had six digs. Addie Miller and Vanessa Hilvers each had seven kills for the Big Green.
For Miller City, Morgan Verhoff had 11 kills, while teammate Cloe Kuhlman had eight kills. Libby Erford recorded 23 digs for the Wildcats.
Shawnee knocks off Wapak
KALIDA — After last year’s Western Buckeye League championship and a run to the regional tournament, this year’s Shawnee volleyball team has something to prove after losing several key pieces to graduation.
The Indians are on track to do just that, improving to 18-6 Tuesday by sweeping a familiar foe, WBL member Wapakoneta (9-15), 25-12, 25-18, 25-18, at Kalida High School in a Division III district semifinal.
Shawnee’s 5-foot-9 junior hitter Karleigh Hutchins, who is one of the returning pieces from last year’s team, led the Indians with 21 kills and two aces. Hutchins has had to take on more of a leadership role this year.
“I’ve stepped into a new role,” Hutchins said. “It’s exciting having new players come up to help and assist in any way, but I’ve had to take on a very big role in helping bring our team to have success, but everybody has played a huge part in getting us here.”
Hutchins and her squad finished the WBL season 8-1, just one game short of league champion Ottawa-Glandorf (9-0), but coach Brooke Hutchins says the pieces are coming together at the right time.
“We have Karleigh Hutchins, who was fortunate enough to play with that pretty tough team last year, so as a junior she brings a lot of experience up that way, but otherwise we are plugging in a lot of young athleticism,” coach Hutchins said.
“We’ve had a good season — we’ve tried to live and volley by the first serve-reception ball and defense. We know we have some girls who can load up between Karleigh and Gianna Upshaw—she’s a freshman, and (freshman) Josie Hutchins is athletic.
“Other than that, this team feels like they have something to prove. We’re not really revamping, but we’re just kind of reloaded. We have a lot of girls who play on national travel schedules and that really helps.”
In Tuesday’s win, Upshaw had 12 kills and four blocks, junior Liz Kinnear had three kills, senior Mackenzie Brickner had three blocks, and junior Addie Kriegel had two kills and three blocks.
Junior Sami Rettig served three aces and junior Emily McKissick and senior Maggie Jordan served two aces apiece
VOLLEYBALL RESULTS AND SCHEDULE
Monday, Oct. 21
D-VI District Semifinal at Van Wert
Coldwater 3, Marion Local 0
D-VI District Semifinal at Van Wert
St. Henry 3, Crestview 0
D-VI District Semifinal at Wapakoneta
New Bremen 3, Riverdale 0
D-VI District Semifinal at Wapakoneta
Minster 3, Van Buren 0
D-VII District Semifinal at Shawnee
New Knoxville 3, Hardin Northern 0
D-VII District Semifinal at Shawnee
Delphos St. John’s 3 Arlington 0
Tuesday, Oct. 22
D-III District Semifinal at Kalida
Shawnee 3, Wapakoneta 0
D-III District Semifinal at Kalida
Bowling Green 3, Defiance 0
D-IV District Semifinal at Riverdale
Shelby 3, Kenton 0
D-V District Semifinal at Miller City
Bluffton 3, Fairview 0
D-V District Semifinal at Miller City
Ottawa-Glandorf 3, Paulding 0
Wednesday, Oct. 23
D-VII District Final at Liberty-Benton
Leipsic 3, Ottoville 2
D-VI District Final at Van Wert
Coldwater 3, St. Henry 1
D-VI District Final at Van Wert
New Bremen 3, Minster 0
D-VII District Final at Shawnee
New Knoxville 3, Delphos St. John’s 0
Thursday, Oct. 24
D-V District Final at Miller City
Ottawa-Glandorf 3, Bluffton 2
D-III District Final at Kalida
Shawnee 3, Bowling Green 2
Thursday, Oct. 31
D-VII Regional Semifinal at Lakota
Tiffin Calvert vs Leipsic, 8 p.m.
D-VII Regional Semifinal at Lakota
New Knoxville vs West Unity Hilltop
D-VI Regional Semifinal at Northmont
TBD vs Coldwater, 5 p.m.
D-VI Regional Semifinal at Fostoria
New London vs New Bremen, 8 p.m.
D-V Regional Semifinal at Elida
Ottawa-Glandorf vs Archbold, 8 p.m.
D-III Regional Semifinal at
Shawnee vs Toledo St. Ursula Academy, 8 p.m.
