Gilmour Takes Care of St. Joe's In Straight Sets

With the restructuring of Ohio high school volleyball that occurred last spring, there are lots of adjustments to be made. But one thing doesn’t change—the quality of the team from Gilmour Academy.

Instead of the four divisions that volleyball used to have, there are now seven. But it doesn’t matter to Gilmour. The Lancers reached the Division II state final match in each of the past four years, winning in 2020 and 2021, but the division is immaterial. They take on all comers, and with Tuesday’s three-set sweep of Division I St. Joseph Academy, Gilmour is now 10-1 after its 28-26, 25-9, 25-19 victory. SJA falls to 4-4 with the loss.

With 11 seniors on the roster—many of whom have started since the 10^th grade—the Lancers would be prohibitive favorites to win another Division II crown had things stayed the same. Now they’re in Divison III, prompting some to say that the DIII state championship trophy is a lock for Gilmour. But coach Danny Coughlin isn’t one of those making such rash statements.

A perfect example is the match with St. Joseph Academy. The Jaguars lost much from last year’s Final Four team, including coach Katie Latkovich, now in charge at Baldwin-Wallace University. But that didn’t keep SJA from staging a massive comeboack in the first set. At one point they were down by nine at 12-3, but the Jaguars battled back to tie the score at 24 before eventually dropping the set by the score of 28-26.

“I always say that we have to sustain every team’s best effort, and that’s what we saw in the first set,” Coughlin said.

The remainder of the match was relatively anti-climactic, as Gilmour rarely trailed the rest of the way. With twin towers Aubrey Anders (10 kills) and Kayla Channell (9 kills) controlling the net, the Lancers never again trailed after falling behind 2-0 to start the second set. Gilmour also got outstanding performances from setter Ella Jackson, Kyla Williams (5 kills), Marlie Davis (4 kills) and libero Brie Habeeb.

Habeeb has only been the starting libero as a junior and as a senior. However, early in the first set she made a one-handed stab at a ball that was destined for the floor, giving her 1,000 digs for her career.

“That’s a big deal, because she didn’t take over the libero spot until her junior season,” Coughlin said. “Up until that point she was following Laney Klika, so she probably had 250 digs in her sophomore season. Her freshman year she didn’t play heavily at all. So that means she’s had 750 digs last season and 11 games into this season. One thousand digs is a big deal for a defender who hasn’t started for four years.”

Most of the match’s drama took place in the first set. Gilmour jumped to leads of 11-2 and 12-3 and looked primed to run away and hide. However, the Jaguars battled back to tie the score at 24 and were serving for the set at 25-24 before the Lancers dug deep and pulled it out.

“St. Joe’s is tough,” Coughlin said. “They have a very, very tough serve. We were missing one of our defenders and one of our primary passers in Mi-Na (Diggs). So, Marlie got pulled into the back row today and Cara (Riley) got put in a new spot. A lot of those errors once St. Joe’s got into a rhythm was more about communication and who’s taking what because they hadn’t played next to each other over the past 10 matches.”

Despite jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the second set, the Jaguars fell flat as the Lancers opened up leads of 15-5, 19-6 and 24-8. While it appeared SJA had nothing left after expending so much energy in its first-set comeback, SJA coach Jordan Kortowich didn’t see it that way.

“Like any coach, we like to think that setting that momentum in the first set will set the tone for the whole match, but sometimes it doesn’t,” she said. “Sometimes we lose that first set and then we make the adjustments and we execute and win the second set. It’s not that we needed that first set win to set the tone. You can set the tone in any set.

“I just think we got in our heads that we let that first set fall from us. These girls hold so much pressure within themselves to just be better. That heavy pressure, it can consume. It can take over. Gilmour did a really good job of sticking with their communication and sticking with their talent and doing what they’re really good at. Defense wins games, offense wins games. Gilmour did a really good job of executing both.”

Gilmour had big leads of 14-6 and 17-9 in the third set, but the Jaguars once again battled back, cutting the margin to 21-18 before finally succumbing.

“What I like about this match is that we were up and down, up and down, up and down, but we were able to battle back and win those close points, like the end of set one,” Coughlin said. “We were up big, they mentally jumped back on us and tied the game at 24, but we had the mental fortitude to say, ‘OK, let’s just finish this set and get out.’ I think in years past we might have given up that set just because it would have gotten in their heads. But we’re older now and they can take a little more of that mental game.”

St. Joseph Academy was led by senior Belle Groomes, who never leaves the floor and is the team’s best hitter and the team’s best setter. However, you can’t do both on the same possession, so the recent commit to the University of San Diego is always on the move, sometimes setting up her teammates and sometines taking swings herself. She ended the night with seven kills, second on the team behind sophomore Anne Culkar with 11.

“I don’t really have a dilemma with that kid,” Kortowich said. “She is an angel from up above. We have a really good offense, but she runs a lot of tempo in our offense. She sets the tone. She sets the tempo for the offense. It’s hard for her because she’s running all over the place. She holds a huge role on this team. What happens on our side of the court is a lot of times in Belle’s hands. But I think our whole offense performed very well today.”