A Fine Season

St. Henry falls to Newark Catholic in Division VI championship match

FAIRBORN - St. Henry came out fast against Newark Catholic, and the Green Wave fought through.

Then Newark Catholic wore down the Redskins, capturing the Division VI state volleyball championship with a 25-22, 25-23, 25-18 win to finish 27-0 and gain the program's ninth state title in school history.

St. Henry, looking to capture the program's eighth state title, finished second for the sixth time to finish 23-6.

"It's frustrating, but you saw our community here (at the Nutter Center)," said an emotional St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck. "The community support has been unbelievable. They're proud of us.

"Did we fall short of our ultimate goal? Absolutely. But none of the people in the stands are going to look differently at us and think that we failed. We got here and pulled a community together."

The Green Wave opened with the first set with the opening point, but the Redskins tied it quick on a Karlee Buschur kill as Lexi Buschur went back to serve and rattled off five straight as Kylie Bollenbacher and Addy Homan got kills and Newark Catholic had two hitting errors to make it 6-1 and force Wave coach Katie Hill to call a timeout.

"We talked a lot of about seeing adversity and being comfortable," said Hill, in her first season as head coach. "It was okay for us not being perfect and embrace a little chaos. It's made us a stronger team."

The reset worked. A hitting error by St. Henry gave Newark Catholic the serve back, tying the set at 7-all. St. Henry tried to pull away again, going up 13-10 before a Natalie Harrington kill and a couple of Redskin hitting errors tied the set at 13-all. The teams tied at 14-, 15- and 16-all before St. Henry got another two-point lead at 18-16 and then 19-17 before the Wave struck back and tied the set at 19-all. St. Henry took a brief 20-19 lead, but Leah Caudill got a kill to tie for the 10th time, then Harrington got a stuff kill to change the lead for the fourth time at 21-20. Layla Jones followed with a kill to give the Wave their first two-point lead before St. Henry got back to within one at 22-21. A hitting error put Newark Catholic at 23-21, then Caudill got the ace to fall to put the Wave at set point. A hitting error got St. Henry a point back, but Harrington quickly stifled any comeback try with a kill.

"We came out ready to play and were aggressive," said Rosenbeck. "We were in system, but they (Newark Catholic) are a talented team. They had fight and wanted it as well. They came back and it was point-for-point. They just found a way to finish."

Newark Catholic's momentum carried into the second set as the Green Wave jumped out 6-1 thanks to kills from Jones, Sydney Gummer and Aubrey Winters before Karlee Buschur snapped the run after Rosenbeck called timeout. The Redskins worked to get back into the match, cutting the margin to 7-6 before the Wave came back to go up 13-8 on a Caudill kill. St. Henry kept clawing back, getting back to 14-13 before the Wave tried for the coup de grâce to get to 23-20. St. Henry stormed back, Molly Wendel got a kill to get the serve back for St. Henry, then added another kill and a Wave hitting error to tie things at 23-all. Harrington got a kill to make it set point, then came up with another to make it 2-0.

"They're tall and that altered our offense," said Rosenbeck, a reference to Newark Catholic having four regulars six feet or taller. "I thought they served aggressively and got us out of system a bit. We were a little predictable. … There were a few times we were down 5-6 points and the girls came back and fought to get back in the game. That's been these ladies (play) all season."

"Trying to hit around their block was difficult," said Karlee Buschur. Our pins (outside and right-side hitters) did a very good job making Newark Catholic's middle blockers pick either right side or outside. Hitting right down the line was good for us."

The Green Wave jumped out 5-1 in the third set as they tried to finish off the match in style. St. Henry fought back, getting to within a point at 6-5 on a Paige Bergman ace. Newark Catholic rattled off four straight points to get to 10-5, then later went up 15-8 on a Sophia Basham kill. This time, St. Henry was unable to maintain a comeback, getting doing 20-10 and were down 23-12 before Finley Brewer got a kill to allow St. Henry one last burst. Addy Homan rattled offf five straight points, all but one on Green Wave attack errors, to make it 23-18 before Caudill got a kill to give the Wave match point. Senior Veronica Bailey stepped back and served up an ace to end the match.

"We saw (St. Henry) on Aug. 30 (at the St. Henry Invitational, a three-set win for the Wave). We were still a young team on our chemistry," said Hill. "They are a great team, a disciplined team and hungry team. We knew we were going to get their best and do something different from the first time around."

"They really pushed to find ways to get back into the game," said Rosenbeck. "I'm proud of them for that."

Harrington finished with 10 kills, 12 assists and 20 digs for Newark Catholic. Caudill and Gummer each added eight kills with Gummer adding 15 assists.

Bollenbacher had nine kills for St. Henry. Wendel, one of five seniors along with Olivia Gast, Morgan Baumer, Lexi Buschur and Karlee Buschur, had eight kills and 10 digs. Morgan Baumer had 17 digs with Addy Homan recording 23 assists.

"I'm just so proud how we pushed through (district and regional) to get here today," said Wendel.

"We worked our (butts) off to get here," said Lexi Buschur, drawing a laugh. "It sucks to fall short, but we just have to learn and reflect, then pick it back up."