The Daily Standard
Story Archive
St. Marys' Syerra Greber (13) spikes the ball as Celina's Lilly Shreffler blocks during Thursday's Western Buckeye League volleyball opener at St. Marys. The Roughriders defeated the Bulldogs in three sets to snap Celina's 23-match league winning streak.
ST. MARYS - The last time St. Marys and Celina squared off in volleyball action, the Roughriders ended the Bulldogs' season in the district semifinals in a five-set battle.
The rematch came quickly, as the teams faced off in the Western Buckeye League opener on Thursday night. It was also the season opener for the Bulldogs, while St. Marys played three matches on Saturday in Coldwater.
The Roughriders were ready and did not back down, sweeping Celina 25-19, 25-20, 25-20 at Grand Lake Health System Court.
The loss snaps Celina's 23-match league winning streak. The last time Celina lost in league play was Sept. 24, 2020, when Ottawa-Glandorf swept the Bulldogs at the Intermediate School.
"It's nice coming into your home gym four matches into the season and playing in front of a big crowd like this," said St. Marys coach - and Celina graduate - Caley Yoder. "I do love playing against Celina. Such a good energy."
"St. Marys is a great team. We scrimmaged them this summer and held our own for sure," said Celina coach Phil Bange. "We knew it was going to be a dogfight coming in. We were excited, felt ready to play, but (St. Marys) had some fire tonight."
St. Marys' Brynn Clark tries to tip a shot past Celina's Ava Knapke at Grand Lake Health System Court on Thursday.
The possibility of another five-set classic was clear in the first set, as the teams traded the lead five times and tied nine more times. Neither team could gain much momentum through the 10-10 mark of the match, but a kill by Brynn Clark made it 11-10 St. Marys, Lily Rammel followed with an ace and a Celina two-hit call quickly made it a three-point lead. St. Marys got the lead up to four, but Celina trimmed it to two several times before a late run gave St. Marys the first set.
"When they got that momentum, it's hard to steal it back," said Bange.
The Bulldogs looked ready to storm back in the second, as a four-point run by Allison Schwieterman that included kills from Makayla Stoner and Mylee Sapp put Celina up 8-3. St. Marys, though, began to inch back a point or two at a time, eventually tying the game at 12-, 13- and 14-all before a Celina hitting error gave St. Marys the lead at 15-14.
A quick-set by Audra Clark and a block by Brynn Clark helped raise the margin to 18-14. Celina inched back to within two at 21-19, but a hitting error snapped the momentum. An ace by Rammel put St. Marys up two sets to none.
"We've been working on serve receive in practice," said Yoder. "We wanted (the setters) to move the ball around and getting everyone engaged. Everyone did."
Celina's Emma Harter (2) bumps the ball as teammate Haley Kizer backs her up during Thursday's match at St. Marys.
St. Marys took the lead early in the third set, going up 9-6 after a Syerra Greber ace, but Celina was in no mood to concede a sweep. Emma Harter served up five straight points, including an ace, and Sapp and Stoner had kills to put the Bulldogs into the lead at 12-9.
Just as fast, though, St. Marys stormed back with Rammel at the serving line. Rammel served up two aces and Brynn Clark had a kill and a block as the Roughriders tallied six straight points to go up 18-13.
Celina did its best to try and keep the game going as Sidney Jenkins served up three straight points to cut the margin to 21-19 and force Yoder to use her second timeout of the set, but the next serve went out of bounds.
Celina quickly got the serve back, but a Greber stuff block was followed by a Sylvia Wiechart kill to reach match point and then Greber got a serve just inside the back line to close out the match.
"We took care of what I thought we needed to take care of," said Yoder. "Serve, serve receive, attacking when we needed to. Overall, I'm happy how we played."
"I thought we played well in the back row. We couldn't get our offense going," said Bange. "Too many errors. Couple serving errors. Things add up. It wasn't one thing. All those things add up."
Greber led St. Marys with 10 kills and added eight digs. Brynn Clark had eight kills and two aces. Rammel had 15 assists and four aces with Ashlie Nuss adding 12 digs.
Sapp had nine kills for Celina with Stoner tallying seven kills. Schwieterman had 18 digs with Haley Kizer dishing out 21 assists.
St. Marys (2-3, 1-0 WBL) is off until Monday when Pandora-Gilboa comes to town. Celina (0-1, 0-1 WBL) travels to Rockford on Saturday for the Panther Invitational.
