DaytonDailyNews.com

FAIRBORN — All along the road to the girls Division IV state high school volleyball championship game, New Knoxville got the big plays when it needed them.

Until Saturday.

The Rangers (26-3) lost in the title game to 26-3 Norwalk St. Paul, 25-23, 25-22, 22-25, 25-21, in the 32nd girls volleyball state tournament at Wright State's Nutter Center.

It was New Knoxville's first appearance in the championship game, the second for St. Paul, which won the title in 2002, lost in the semifinals last year and was runner-up in 2004.

The pattern began in the first match. New Knoxville fell behind, 6-1, and trailed by four points on several occasions. But the hitting of Nicole Wright, Alycia Niemeyer and Morgan Reineke brought New Knoxville back to a 23-23 tie.

New Knoxville had chances to go ahead, couldn't convert and two kills by St. Paul's Christine Dow ended the match.

It was the same throughout, except in the third match. Wright came through with five big kills to extend the competition.

The streak didn't last. St. Paul got out to a quick 9-3 lead. New Knoxville came back to within 20-19, but couldn't convert to go ahead.

"We've had a lot of success this year taking advantage of other team's defensive mistakes," said New Knoxville coach Jenny Fledderjohann. "But we haven't played a team as good on defense all year as them.

"They picked up on all the mistakes we made. We were close in all the matches, but when it looked like we were about to gain momentum, they found a way to counter it."

Wright and Niemeyer each had 17 kills and 11 digs for Knoxville, while Haley Kruse had 45 assists and Anna Jaynes 13 digs.

Christine Dow had 18 kills, Kate Schafer 14 kills and Andrea Fritz 44 assists for St. Paul.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2251 or dlong@DaytonDaily

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