By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
The balanced offensive attack that carried Notre Dame’s volleyball team to the No. 1 ranking in the state coaches poll this season was on full display in the 9th Region championship match Wednesday at St. Henry High School.
The Pandas had an impressive .437 hitting percentage in a three-set sweep against St. Henry and will take a 31-3 record into the state tournament that begins Monday. Their first-round opponent will be the 11th Region champion.
“It just shows that we all work together so well,” Notre Dame senior Ava Tilden said of her team’s hitting percentage in the region final. “We could never do that without great passes, perfect sets. We work on that team aspect a lot in practice and I think it’s really showing up.”
Tilden delivered a team-high 15 kills and was named the tournament’s most valuable player. The teammates behind her on the kill list were junior Audrey Dyas with 11 and sophomore Teagan Kondik with 10. Junior setter Lizzy Larkins had 47 assists.
This is the third straight year that Notre Dame has won the 9th Region title. The Pandas have a 9-6 record against St. Henry in 15 region finals played over the last 21 years. Their goal now is winning four matches during next week’s state tournament.
“We have a goal and we’re going to make that happen, whatever we’ve got to do,” said Notre Dame coach Leslie Litmer. “We’ll come in the gym and work hard every day.”
In the region final, Notre Dame won the first two sets, 25-15, 25-14, with very few attack errors.
In the third set, the Pandas let a 20-17 lead slip away due to some hitting and serving miscues, but they rallied to pull out a 28-26 win that ended the match.
“St. Henry did a really good job of putting pressure on us, especially there at the end,” coach Litmer said. “That was a hard way to finish, but I think our girls just stayed composed and trusted what they know and that helped them stay in control.”
St. Henry ends the season with a 33-6 record and was ranked No. 4 in the state coaches poll. The Crusaders’ leading hitters were senior Corrine Blackburn and junior Madi Demler, one of several underclassmen in a rotation that includes three freshmen.
“We just don’t have the experience that they do,” St. Henry coach Maureen Kaiser said after her team’s second 3-0 loss to Notre Dame this season.
“We were just scrapping and sending free balls over and that just makes their offense so much better,” Kaiser added. “But we made a good run in the third (set). I would’ve liked to have taken that one just to see if it’d calm our nerves down a little bit.”
Notre Dame got most of its points from the left side of the offensive attack where outside hitters Tilden and junior Grace Portwood were highly effective.
In the second set, Portwood scored three points during a 5-1 run that put the Pandas ahead, 12-7, and they pulled away shortly after that.
“We really liked our matchups on the outside there, but the fact once again was that we could feed other people and give them opportunities to where their blockers couldn’t camp out on any of them,” coach Litmer said.
Portwood, Dyas and senior Julia Grace were the other Notre Dame players named to the all-tournament team. St. Henry’s selections were freshmen Violet Main, Kenadi Sieg and Madelyn Kiepert.
The all-tournament team also included Ariana Furuta and Morgan Heater of Ryle, Ella Cox and Sydney Schomaker of Highlands, Isabel O’Brien of Beechwood, Katelyn Brannen of Newport Central Catholic, Maya Kondik of Villa Madonna and Audrey Schilling of Cooper.