by DAYTON, Ohio—It doesn’t matter the division, the Lake Catholic Cougars just keep winning state volleyball championships.
Friday afternoon at Wright State University, the Cougars won their third in a row, taking down Franklin Bishop Fenwick, 25-18, 18-25, 25-14, 25-20. Each of the past two years Lake Catholic was the Division III state champion, and this year, with a revamped setup, the Cougars won the Division V title.
“I’m so proud of these girls,” said first year coach Tess Connolly. “A lot of people doubted them, and they just worked really, really hard on and off the court. I’m just ecstatic.”
The doubt came with the fact that Lake Catholic graduated a dynamite senior class last year and many thought this could be a down year. Not a chance.
“We were hopeful, but we had a lot of doubters,” said senior libero Julia Oster. “I think we kind of knew we could do it, but it was nice to prove to everyone else that we could.”
It is an especially meaningful accomplishment for Oster, who played on the last two championship teams with her older sister, Kara, as the head coach. Kara Oster also was a member of the school’s first state championship team in 2010.
There may have been some who doubted that Lake Catholic could win its third title in a row, but Fenwick coach Tyler Conley was not one of them.
“They’re a machine,” he said. “It’s their third in a row. They might be the best team in the state regardless of division.”
Coming into the match, there was some talk of this being another example of David vs. Goliath. Fenwick entered the postseason with 12 losses and a losing record overall. The Falcons also were not even mentioned in the state poll all season while the Cougars were ranked No. 1 all season. To top it off, Fenwick had only four seniors on its roster and only one of them started.
But with nothing to lose, the Falcons began the match on fire, jumping to a 4-0 lead with some big hits by sophomore Megan Meiring, who led all players with 19 kills. For the first time in the postseason, Connolly called a timeout to regroup her troops.
“I think we said 100 times we just need to play our game,” said Oster. “Coach always says the only people who can beat us is ourselves. We knew we weren’t really playing how we could and we kind of let the nerves shake out and we knew what to do from there.”
The Cougars trailed, 15-14, midway through the opening set, but then went on a 11-3 run to close it out. Lake Catholic had four aces in the first, letting the Falcons know what was to come. The Cougars ended up with 13 aces to just three for Fenwick, as Oster, Ava Budrys Rini and Natalya Bergant each had three and Ahna Bergant had two.
When asked what the difference was in the match, Conley didn’t hesitate to answer. “Serving,” he said. “They served more aggressively than us and they served better than us. They had 13 aces, and we had three. That’s it right there.”
But it wasn’t that easy, as the Cougars lost their way in the second set, allowing the Falcons to open up leads of 13-6, 17-7 and 23-13. This was uncharted territory, as it was just the third set that Lake Catholic lost in the postseason in the past three years. Lake made a mini run late in the set to cut it to 23-18, but that’s as close as it got.
“In that second set, I think we just kind of got ahead of ourselves for a second,” said Connolly. “We had to kind of get a little more grounded. We had to take control of what we could control, identify what the basics are and kind of thrive in that area first and then move forward.”
It didn’t take long for the Cougars to take control of the match, as they seemed to build an impenetrable wall at the net, scoring several points on block winners. They led, 8-3, 14-6 and 17-7 before running away to an easy set win.
The final set was somewhat tighter, as the teams went back and forth until the score was tied at 15. The LC ace machine was at it again in the fourth set, as the Cougars had six. Eventually, Lake edged ahead, 19-18, and then it was time for Ava Budrys Rini to take over. She scored four of her team’s final six points on a block winner and three kills, including the final point of the match.
“I just really wanted a threepeat,” she said.
