Finishing touches

CELINA - Celina coach Amy Sutter wants to see her team perfect the art of finishing sets.

Nikki Etzler's Coldwater Cavaliers were a little better in that department on Tuesday.

Ball State commit Lauren Gilliland had a match-high 18 kills to help Coldwater defeat Celina 3-1 (25-17, 25-10, 15-25, 25-21) at the Intermediate School. The fourth set was tied 11 times, but the Cavs ended the match with a 7-3 run to improve to 11-5 on the season.

The Bulldogs fell to 5-8, with seven of those losses coming at the hands of the Midwest Athletic Conference.

"We have a consistency issue, and it may be tied to our inexperience," Sutter said. "But we are a good team. It seems like we're just having trouble putting it together for long periods of time."

Gilliland and Katie Alig had three kills apiece for Coldwater in the opening set. The Cavs led 14-12 before pulling away with an 11-5 run. Maddy Luebke had three kills for Celina, which committed 11 hitting errors in the loss.

Gilliland had three more kills early on in set two, while Alig and Annelise Harlamert touched the court with a pair of aces each as Coldwater faced little resistance in climbing out to a double digit lead in what turned out to be a 25-10 victory.

"I thought we serve received very well, and in set two we did a good job of serving aggressively," Etzler said. "That mentality didn't stay with us throughout the whole match. That was a struggle of ours. (Gilliland) was the one player who consistently put the ball away for us tonight and she was huge."

Celina built a 10-5 lead in third set. Coldwater got the margin down to two points at 10-8, but the Cavs followed with a collection of hitting errors and a left-handed spike by Brooke Robbins made it 15-8. The Bulldogs never let the Cavs back closer than six for the remainder of the set, closing out a 25-15 win on a Maria Lutz kill.

The score was locked up 11 times in the fourth set, with the final tie coming at 18-all. Gilliland changed that with a kill, Alaina Steinke followed with an ace and the Cavs finished ahead 25-21 on scoreboard.

"It wasn't for lack of wanting or lack of trying in the final set," Sutter said. "It's maybe just a lack of believing we can finish hard and finish strong and put games away.

"In the first set, I think what cost us was finishing at the net," Sutter added. "In the second set, it was our serve receive. It's just like a different fire to put out during different sets."

Harlamert had 30 assists and four aces for Coldwater while Alig added nine digs. The Cavs host New Knoxville on Thursday for "Pack the Palace Night," with proceeds from the game benefitting Gina McKibben in her fight with breast cancer.

Robbins had a team-best nine kills for Celina. Luebke tallied seven kills and nine digs while Samantha Carlin had 32 assists and seven digs for Celina, which hosts Defiance on Thursday.