The two teams that have met in the 9th Region volleyball championship in each of the last three seasons won’t meet for the title this year.
Instead, Notre Dame and St. Henry will face off in Wednesday night’s semifinals at Dayton at 8 p.m., following the first semifinal matchup between Beechwood and Conner.
Here’s how they got there:
Notre Dame 3, Highlands 0 (25-12, 25-13, 25-15)
Notre Dame’s reputation preceded them, and Highlands struggled to play past it.
The Pandas lived up to that reputation Tuesday evening in the 9th Region quarterfinals at Dayton, sweeping the Bluebirds 3-0 (25-12, 25-13, 25-15).
Notre Dame has no shortage of talent, and preparing for the state’s No. 3-ranked team is difficult enough, but Highlands had to prepare for more than just the players on the other side of the net.
The Bluebirds also had to contend with the name across their jerseys.
“Preparing for this was convincing my team that they can compete with Notre Dame,” Highlands head coach Leah Fryman said. “That was the biggest challenge. I know our talent, what we’re capable of doing. They do in practice and against certain teams, but they get on that floor and see Notre Dame, and it’s just instant intimidation. I remember that feeling when I played against them.”
Of course, the Pandas haven’t just earned a reputation. They showed why they deserve it.
The Bluebirds held just five leads across the three sets, four of them coming in the third. None lasted long, as Highlands never led by more than one.
The Pandas handled business in each set, winning by margins of 13, 12 and 10 points.
Notre Dame found much of their success at the service line, recording 14 aces against just five service errors.
“Towards the end of the season, we’re really focusing on serving,” Notre Dame co-head coach Hannah Colvin said. “We know for the bigger teams, for Assumption, for St. Henry, for Beechwood, we really have to win in serving, serving aggressive every match to force them out of the system, and we’ve been working on that a lot in practice.”
Seven different players accounted for Notre Dame’s 14 aces, led by Teagan Kondik with five.
Serving set the tone early, helping the Pandas pull away in each set. Two aces from Kaia Tilden sparked a 5-0 run in the first, and after Highlands pulled within 8-6, Notre Dame closed the set on a 17-6 run.
Highlands opened the second set with a 1-0 lead, but the Pandas again pulled away, taking the set 25-13.
The third set was the most competitive, with the teams tied at 10 before Kondik delivered one of her 14 kills to give Notre Dame the lead.
“We talked a little bit, coming into the huddle, like, ‘We gotta pick it up, more energy,'” Kondik said. “We gotta have some confidence. Let’s push through and finish the game.”
Notre Dame responded with a 15-5 run to close out the set and the match.
Highlands’ season ends at 13-16, bringing the first year of the Leah Fryman era in Fort Thomas to a close.
“I’m glad I’m here,” Fryman said. “I took a long break from coaching when I had children and couldn’t dedicate the time to them, and I’ll be honest, it was challenging for my family this year. But I love coaching, and for me, this year was to take it all in, understand how the program works, how Fort Thomas works. I’m ready to go into next year with new ideas and changes. There’s a lot of talent in the school district, and I’m excited for the future of this program.”
The Bluebirds will lose five seniors: Lyla Shaffer, Ava Gwisdalla, Ava Ireland, Meredith Hicks and Taylor Janosick.
Meanwhile, the 9th Region volleyball version of Ohio State-Michigan football is next.
Notre Dame vs. St. Henry in Wednesday night’s semifinals.
“I know we can look at the draw and be like, we have a really tough route to the championship, but I kind of look at it with the silver lining that we’re going to play a really tough team tomorrow and that will prepare us for the championship,” Colvin said. “We’re going into each game with the same mindset that this could be our final game, and so we have to wear our hearts on our sleeves and battle it out. We keep hearing that it’s so open this year, so we’re looking at it as a positive that we have a tough route to the title, and it’ll prepare us.”
St. Henry 3, Ryle 1 (25-11, 25-17, 22-25, 25-10)
There’s no time to coast in the postseason.
One set from trouble, St. Henry found another gear after dropping the third. The Crusaders responded with one of their most dominant sets of the season to defeat Ryle 3-1 (25-11, 25-17, 22-25, 25-10) in the final quarterfinal of the 9th Region tournament.
Between the luck of the draw and the depth of talent in the 9th Region, the fifth-ranked Crusaders drew a matchup with No. 13 Ryle.
That means no team is safe until the final point, and one slip-up can change everything.
Needing just one more set victory with a 2-0 lead, St. Henry stumbled in the third, falling 25-22.
Something changed in the fourth. Perhaps a message helped, but Crusaders head coach Maureen Kaiser turned to a statistic.
“The statistics are there that the first team to 10 tends to win 87 percent of the time, and the first team to 15 wins 93 percent of the time,” Kaiser said. “I’m like, we’ve got to get to 15 first, and we did in the first two, but in the third, we didn’t get to 10 nor 15 first. We were sluggish, and this is region play. You’re either in or you’re out.”
In the fourth set, the Crusaders reached 10 points before the Lady Raiders had scored twice. St. Henry reached 15 before Ryle had even reached five.
The Crusaders opened the set on a 6-0 run and never looked back, closing out the match with a 25-10 victory.
Ryle had found an answer in the third set, but the Lady Raiders couldn’t replicate that success in the first two or the fourth.
“We probably exhausted a lot in the third set, and we could just not pull it together,” Ryle head coach Tasha Tanner-Lovins said. “It was one of those where you get too high and then get down in the next. In the fourth, we just could not get back up. We got down and kept getting lower and lower.”
Tanner-Lovins saw another difference between the teams. St. Henry has grown accustomed to high-pressure situations and win-or-go-home games, while Ryle has had less experience in those moments.
For the Crusaders, competing in those situations is part of the expectation.
“It definitely is expected,” junior Hadley Lemmond said. “With the success of this program, it’s there, but we’re used to it. We’re prepared for it. Trust your training and know your game. We’ve worked for this all season, and we know we can do it. I think a lot of it relies on that.”
St. Henry showed that confidence from the start, never trailing in the opening set on their way to a 25-11 win. The Crusaders took the second set 25-17 before Ryle fought back to extend the match.
The Lady Raiders took the lead at 10-9 and 15-14 in the third. After St. Henry briefly moved ahead, Ryle pulled away late to earn a 25-22 win and force a fourth set.
But there would be no deciding fifth set.
“We were thinking about the next games coming up. It’s just going to get harder and harder,” Lemmond said. “We need to leave it all out there because we don’t know when the season’s going to end. You don’t want to lose and not be able to come off the court and say you didn’t give it your all.”
That’s not something the Crusaders will be saying just yet.
Up next is a semifinal meeting with Notre Dame, a team St. Henry defeated during the regular season.
“I think we’re doing pretty good,” Lemmond said. “We’re all at the same spot where we’ve got to bring it and just play. Whatever happens, happens.”
Ryle’s season ends at 13-16, with the Lady Raiders losing four seniors.
They return their top two leaders in kills, sophomore Layna Wilkinson and junior Ashley Towner, along with their team leaders in assists, aces and blocks.
PANDAS 3, BLUEBIRDS 0
NOTRE DAME — 25-25-25 — 3
HIGHLANDS — 12-13-15 — 0
Game Stats
Kills: Notre Dame 34, Highlands 18
Aces: Notre Dame 14, Highlands 2
Service Errors: Notre Dame 5, Highlands 6
Records: Notre Dame 23-11, Highlands 13-16
CRUSADERS 3, LADY RAIDERS 1
ST. HENRY — 25-25-22-25 — 3
RYLE — 11-17-25-10 — 1
Game Stats
Kills: St. Henry 53, Ryle 32
Aces: St. Henry 8, Ryle 4
Service Errors: St. Henry 9, Ryle 8
Records: St. Henry 24-9, Ryle 15-14
