Fans knew they’d be in for a treat Saturday afternoon as the two teams are the most prolific small schools when it comes to volleyball in Ohio, having been to state a combined 40 times with 16 state titles between them.
“These girls pulled a community together that hasn’t had this kind of success in a long time,” said St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck. “Does it suck to fall short? Absolutely. But I know the fans do not feel any differently about us.”
Indeed, the fans showed throughout the game, and during the trophy presentation afterwards how they felt about the Redskins.
St. Henry will lose five seniors from the team – who were recognized during the trophy presentation – Olivia Gast, Morgan Baumer, Molly Wendel, Lexi Buschur and Karlee Buschur.
“Yes we had these five seniors, but it was a team of 16 and there was no finger pointing. It’s hard to put into words what these five leaders have done,” Rosenbeck said. “We are going to miss these five so much.”
And while those five – and everyone else on the court showed up – they struggled to deal with the length Newark Catholic put up against them.
“They are tall, long, athletic and they altered our offense,” Rosenbeck said. “They got us out of system and were able to block us quite a bit.”
St. Henry started the match strong, jumping to a 6-1 lead, but Newark Catholic fought all the way back to take a 23-21 lead and never trailed after that. In fact, St. Henry and NC were tied 23-23 late in the second game, which was the last time the Redskins pulled even.
“We saw (St. Henry) on August 30 and we were a young team in terms of chemistry then,” Newark Catholic coach Katie Hill said. “When we went 3-0 in that invite we knew we had something. (St. Henry) is a great team, it is a disciplined team, it is a hungry team, but we were a different team from the first time around.”
The third game was the separator. When NC took a 13-7 lead and grew it to 20-11, the Green Wave were in total control. Still, though, the Redskins fought back. Without anger or frustration, the Redskins pulled together to bring it within 23-18, but Newark Catholic’s size was too much.
“We have unconditional love for one another,” Buschur said. “We are connected to each other and grew stronger together during this tournament run.”
Bollenbacher led the way with nine kills while Wendel had eight kills and four assists. Addy Homan had 23 assists.
St. Henry finished the season 23-6.
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