Off to a good start

CELINA - There were quite a few butterflies fluttering in the stomachs of the Celina volleyball team as they opened the season on Friday night.

Fortunately, they were able to capture them quickly and gave new coach Angela Bourne her first win in a 25-19, 25-14, 25-13 sweep of Bellefontaine at the Intermediate School.

The first set featured 11 ties and four lead changes as the Chieftains jumped out to a 4-2 lead before Celina began to start getting into form. With Amelia Lutz serving, Celina tied the game at 13-all with a Bellefontaine lift call, then kills by Amelia Lutz and Emma Guggenbiller put Celina in front 15-11. Bellefontaine came back with a service run of its own to take a 16-15 lead before a hitting error tied the set again at 16-all. After a trading of points, Celina took the lead on Emily Schwieterman's four-point run as Brooklyn Bourne had three kills and Payton Bertke added a dink to give Celina a 21-17 lead. The Chieftains scored two points before Celina put the set away.

"Once they got the nerves out of the way, they focused on the job at hand," said coach Bourne. "They really worked well together. I did a lot of subbing and I thought it worked really well with team chemistry."

The Bulldogs led 4-0 early in the game, but the Chieftains worked their way into a 9-7 lead thanks to two aces from Katie Pool. Celina quickly rebounded with an ace from Rose McGohan to put Celina back in front to stay. Schwieterman later added an ace of her own as Celina held Bellefontaine to just five more points down the stretch.

The Chieftains, which played tough all evening with some big rallies, jumped out 3-0, but struggled with hitting errors as Celina tied the game back up at 3-all. The Bulldogs quickly put some distance between themselves and the Chieftains and never trailed the rest of the way.

"We have tried hard to be a scrappy team this year," said coach Bourne. "We work at it in practice."

Celina was scheduled to play in the Parkway Invitational next Saturday but due to Department of Health guidelines the tournament is likely canceled. The next match after that is Sept. 1 at Versailles before opening Western Buckeye League play Sept. 3 at home with Kenton.