Composure was a common word echoed from the Ryle postgame interviews.
First it was head coach Tasha Lovins, then it was senior Kiana Dinn.
The Raiders remain composed throughout Wednesday night’s 33rd District championship volleyball match with Conner at Boone County High School, defeating the Cougars 3-0 (25-13, 25-21, 25-23), winning a fourth straight district title in doing so.
“Composure has been our talk all year. We lost the composure there in the third set, but were able to find it in the end,” Raiders coach Tasha Lovins said.
Even trailing 23-18 in the third set and facing a potential fourth set to keep Conner alive, the Raiders regrouped to score the final seven points of the match and take it in straight sets.
“We kept our composure. That’s a big thing that we’ve been working on this season,” Dinn said. “Just working as a team and not getting too high on the ups and too low on the downs and letting them run. We really minimized that and executed well.”
Dinn was later named tournament MVP. A few months ago it was a wonder if she’d even be able to get out on the court, the University of Pittsburgh commit sidelined with an injury.
“It was a great feeling because honestly I didn’t know if I was going to have a senior season,” Dinn said. “I’m glad I was able to finish it strong and be there for my teammates. I like playing for my team, we all gel well and connect really well so that’s what makes it fun.”
The Raiders attack produced 39 kills in the match, hitting at a high hitting percentage, especially in the first two sets.
An 8-3 Ryle run in the first set broke things open as a 12-8 lead swelled to 20-11 after a Lucy Trapp ace. A net violation and a Annika Berwanger block got Conner two straight points, but the Raiders closed out with four of the final five points in the set thanks to a Karsyn Griffin kill followed by a Alexis Woolf ace.
The second set started out tight with seven lead changes within the first 14 points and all square at seven. But a 7-2 Ryle run broke the set open, leading by as much as seven at 22-15. The Cougars scored three straight on a Peyton Walker kill, block and a Lillian Hamburg kill, but the two traded points from there for Ryle to gain a 2-0 advantage.
“We’re a fighting team. In the third set when we actually began to fight that’s when we were point for point and had the lead going into the final stretch. Just thought we played a little too nonchalant in the first couple sets,” Cougars coach Douglas Rabe said. “We were just waiting for someone else to make a play and didn’t play with a hunger in those first two sets.”
No one led by more than two points in the third set until a Conner 4-0 run made it 23-18 led by a Hamburg kill, Hamburg ace, Walker block and then another Hamburg ace.
“Kudos to Conner. I felt like the end of the second set and that third set, they started blocking us and fixing what they were doing to go against us,” Lovins said. “We regrouped and then did the things that we do best.”
Ryle’s 6-0 run to close out the match was started with a Rebecca Kramer kill with Woolf collecting two more aces and a Griffin kill to end things.
The Raiders now head to the 9th Region tournament as a No. 1 seed and will face a district runner-up out of the 34th, 35th or 36th District. Two of those teams have already been determined, Dixie Heights the runner-up out of the 34th, Newport Central Catholic out of the 36th. The 35th District championship between Beechwood and Notre Dame is on Thursday.
“It’s the postseason. Everybody is good. We just have to remember one point at a time, one game at a time,” Lovins said. “In volleyball, no matter how big the hit is, how big the block is, it’s literally one point every single time not like other sports where there’s touchdowns or 3-pointers. Take it one point at a time, stay composed and get the job done.”
Conner’s 27 wins are the most in a single season this century, but the run of consecutive losses to Ryle jumps to 36.
“We really wanted to break that streak. Whatever the amount of years it is, I don’t know, they just seem to have our number,” Rabe said. “I’m real good at the Taylor Swift, ‘shake it off’, there’s nothing we can do to go back and change it. We can still make adjustments and move forward and use it as fuel and motivation and the fire lit underneath us and kick some butt when it comes to the regional tournament.”
The Cougars will face either St. Henry, Highlands or the Notre Dame-Beechwood winner in the first round of the region tournament.
The 9th Region tournament begins Sunday at Cooper with all four first round games played that day. The draw for the tournament is on Friday.
