By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter
Just another night in Ninth Region volleyball. Defending state and Ninth Region champion Notre Dame Academy, ranked No. 1 in the Kentucky Coaches Poll, came into a rollicking Cooper High gym and did what the Pandas mostly always do.
They won. Again.
But it wasn’t that simple. Or that easy. Despite a 3-0 final score over perennial challenger and state champion two years ago, St. Henry, two of those sets were by a mere two points – 27-25 and 25-23 — with the third and final set, 25-17.
You want to beat Notre Dame, you’d better come with a team capable of winning it all, as St. Henry did two years ago. Otherwise these young Pandas (just one senior), with the way they believe in themselves, won’t let you.
Notre Dame’s 9th Region volleyball champions (Photo by Dan Weber/NKyTribune)
“We knew they were going to go on a run,” said MVP Julia Grace, a junior whose 27 digs were barely surpassed by the 31 of the next five Pandas combined. “We work on that every day.”
So no big deal when an Alivia Skidmore-led St. Henry team (31-9) jumped out to a 20-13 lead in the opening set, earning a pair of set points, only to get caught by a 14-5 NDA finish led by one player after another stepping up to make the big hit, block, save, serve or dink.
“We’re not just a one-man team,” said NDA Co-coach Jenna Leistner. “We’ve been working on that all week,” she said of the shared playmaking leadership.
Notre Dame’s trio of All-tournament players: Audrey Dyas, Ava Tilden, Riley McCloskey with MVP Julia Grace. (Photo by Dan Weber/NKyTribune)
One after another, the three other Panda underclassmen named to the All-Regional-Tournament team stepped up – Audrey Dyas, Riley McCloskey and Ava Tilden – along with Ella Goetz, and made the big play, accumulating a total of 33 kills among them.
But don’t make this all about how big, bad Notre Dame (30-5) won again, as always, said the team’s lone senior, Ava Erpenbeck, who made the case that going into this season, “after we lost two All-Americans, six seniors, and five D-1 commits, everybody looked at us as the underdog.”
Probably not. But good case made by Ava, who plans to become a lawyer, she says. St. Henry, with a strong senior class, was looming “with four D-1 commits,” Erpenbeck said.
And in the second set, after NDA jumped out to a commanding 21-11 lead, St. Henry outscored the Pandas, 14-5, and staved off five straight set points only to give up the one that mattered, down 24-23, on a big block by the Pandas front line.
“I was going to give my all on every single ball,” said MVP Grace. But she and her underclass teammates got plenty of help from Erpenbeck, especially in the second set when Erpenbeck got many of her 10 kills on the night.
“Our communication, honestly, was perfect tonight,” Erpenbeck said, complimenting “the distribution from our setters since every one of our hitters can put the ball away.” As they did.
St. Henry student section put pressure on Notre Dame (Photo by Dan Weber/NKyTribune)
If there was one area of unease, it was having to serve right in front of the St. Henry student cheering section, with NDA committing seven service errors. “A little bit,” Grace said of the level of distraction, “but in my mind they’re zoned out.”
As to falling behind in that first set and facing a pair of set points, All-Tourney Dyas said with a smile: “My team has a lot of grit. It doesn’t stop until we win.” So, no pressure. Just keep playing.
Which is what NDA did.
The Pandas will now face 10th Region champion Campbell County Monday night for the right to go downstate to the eight-team finals this weekend at George Rogers Clark in Winchester. The teams played once this year with NDA a 3-0 winner (25-9, 25-12, 25-11).
ALL NINTH REGION VOLLEYBALL TEAM
Isabel O’Brien, Beechwood; Lucy Simons, Newport Central Catholic; Hayden Gessner, Highlands; Christen Tarter, Dixie Heights; Kiana Dinn, Ryle; Carly Nehus, Conner; Lilly Hamburg, Conner; Alivia Skidmore, St. Henry; Riley McCloskey, Notre Dame; Elizabeth Tabeling, St. Henry; Ava Tilden, Notre Dame; Macy Lentz, St. Henry; Audrey Dyas, Notre Dame; MVP: Julia Grace, Notre Dame.
