Cardington’s Autumn Holt attempts a kill in her team’s volleyball match against Northridge Tuesday.
Rob Hamilton | Morrow County Sentinel
Uneven play cost Cardington in their Division III sectional volleyball contest against visiting Northridge.
In their 21-25, 14-25, 19-25 loss, the Pirates struggled with consistency against an opponent that had topped them in four sets earlier in the year. Head coach Ryan Treese noted that his players did some good things, but also made mistakes that thwarted their attempts to match Northridge’s runs.
“We did stuff tonight that we didn’t do against them Aug. 19, positive and negative,” he said. “Lily (Clark) had nine kills in the first set. She didn’t do that the first time we played them, but at the same time, we’re not talking on an over pass that just deflated the run that we just tried to come back into the set.”
A point by Rylee Donkin opened the first set for Cardington, but they would not score again on their serve until Donkin’s next time up, when she tallied a pair of points to turn a 10-7 deficit into a one-point margin. The team would go on to take a 14-13 lead, but would not be able to get any breathing room.
Despite getting points from Donkin and Longsdorf down the stretch, Northridge was able to score a total of five points on their final four trips to the service line in pulling out the narrow decision.
The second set started out evenly, as well. with three points by Abby Ufferman keeping Cardington in it early at 8-8. However, the team would not score on their serve the rest of the way and the Vikings would make them pay.
Northridge would get one point by Laney Higgins, two from Madison Hoover, four by Taryn Eblin and three from Maddie McCarthy in pulling away for the 11-point win in a set that Treese noted got away from his players.
“There was a point where there was a break in the game in the second set and it went 3-to-6 and all of a sudden we tied it back up 8-to-8 and then it was 11-to-12 and next time I looked up, it was 12-to-22,” he said. “Missed serves, a lot of hitting errors — more hitting errors than I think we’ve had in the last couple games in the second and third sets that just kind of took all the life away from us. Not that it gave it to them, but we lost all confidence.”
The Pirates were able to rally in the early stages of the third set, using one point by Donkin, one by Longsdorf and four by Clark to hold an early 8-6 lead. However, with the score tied at 10, McCarthy scored four straight to give Northridge the lead. Autumn Holt and Donkin scored for Cardington to get them back within a 15-14 margin, but the team would not be able to get over the hump.
The Vikings slowly pulled away over the final points of the set to end Cardington’s season. While disappointed in how it ended, Treese said that he was proud of the effort large senior class gave this year, noting that most of them had very little varsity experience due to being stuck behind a very successful group that led the Pirates to back-to-back regional semifinal contests.
“That was one thing that senior Kelli Landon brought up in the locker room,” he said. “That this is a program, not just a team. People thought that it was a team the last two years, but there’s teams in the surrounding area that have fallen off completely. For them to go 12-10 with seven seniors and only one of them played a significant amount last year with Lily. For them to step onto the court like that and go above .500 after that historic run says a lot to them. One thing I said on Senior Night is they had courage to stick it out four years to wait their turn and get to do that.”
Clark finished the match with 15 kills and nine digs. Ufferman added 11 digs and 28 assists. Also, Holt had eight kills, Madison Caulkins provided four blocks and Donkin tallied 13 digs.
Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS
