Junior Ella Goetz watched her block hit the floor on the opposing side and then turned to celebrate with her teammates.
The Notre Dame Pandas have added some more hardware to their storied program with another 9th Region championship, defeating St. Henry 3-0 (27-25, 25-23, 25-17) on Thursday at Cooper. Notre Dame won all three meetings against St. Henry on its way to a second consecutive region championship.
“All week, we’ve talked about how we need everybody on the team to come in ready to play,” said Jenna Leistner, Notre Dame co-head coach. “We thrive on everybody going. When our middles, our outsides, our right side (hitters) are going, that’s when we’re the most successful. We practiced staying even all week with our setting distribution to get everyone involved. We’re so great when we’re in system and can use all of our hitters.”
Things again started defensively for Notre Dame with 62 digs and 11 blocks. Junior libero Julia Grace put up another spectacular game with 27 digs to go with two aces and Lacey Hostetler followed with 10 digs.
“When the game started, I knew I was going to give it my all going for every single ball,” Grace said. “I use my teammates for an example to work hard. We knew St. Henry would go on runs. But our job is to have confidence in ourselves and work our way back up.”
The Pandas controlled the net with 21 blocks. Goetz, Audrey Dyas and Riley McCloskey had five each as Notre Dame answered the bell against St. Henry power hitters Alivia Skidmore and Anna Guard. Skidmore finished with 13 kills against a consistent double block and Guard finished with seven.
Notre Dame (30-5) then hit the ball all over the court with different players stepping forward in each game. McCloskey, Ava Erpenbeck and Grace Portwood had 10 kills each and Ava Tilden had nine. The setters put up big games as Lauren Ott had 20 assists and Lizzy Larkins had 18.
“I think all of us just want to work so hard for each other,” McCloskey said. “We knew that we couldn’t let up on them because they have very strong players. We wanted this game so bad that our excitement and emotion got it for us.”
Six seniors played their final games for St. Henry while Erpenbeck is the lone one for Notre Dame. Elizabeth Tabeling dug up 10 balls for the Crusaders and Macy Lentz had all 33 assists.
St. Henry unofficially finished with 37 kills, 26 digs and eight blocks. Guard blocked four balls and Corinne Blackburn had three.
St. Henry (31-9) came out swinging. The Crusaders built an 11-6 lead in the first game and increased it to 19-12 after two Madi Demler kills.
But the Pandas fought back into it. They tied it at 22 after a Goetz kill prompting St. Henry to use its second timeout.
Things went back and forth after that. But the Pandas won it on a Dyas block then kill.
“We came out with a bang. Then all of a sudden, our offense went stagnant,” said Maureen Kaiser, St. Henry head coach. “It started to become a mental game. I guess I’m more disappointed in the sense that I know what they’re capable of. Notre Dame really did play well and I’m not downplaying that. But I know we didn’t do what we intended to do. For that, I’m sad. But I hope Notre Dame makes a strong run at the state title. I wish them the best really.”
St. Henry built a 5-3 lead in the second game on a Guard kill. But Notre Dame came back to build a 17-9 lead after a Portwood kill.
Notre Dame led 22-16 after an Erpenbeck kill. St. Henry trimmed it to 24-23. But after a timeout, Tilden landed a kill to give the Pandas the second game.
The third game stayed tight initially. But Notre Dame built a 16-12 lead and pulled away from there. Tilden landed an ace prior to the Goetz block to end the game.
“The touches definitely helped a lot,” Erpenbeck said. “If our middles weren’t there, they left a hole, which our defense could get in and pick stuff up. I honestly think the communication all over was perfect. I couldn’t have asked for a better ending.”
Notre Dame takes travels to Campbell County (19-13) on Monday for the first round of the state tournament. The two met on Sept. 6, a 3-0 (25-9, 25-12, 25-11) Pandas victory.