The first round of the state volleyball tournament in recent years has taken the Notre Dame Pandas to Wolfe County, Paintsville and this year, to a much-closer Campbell County.
But the common denominator has not changed. Notre Dame brought the intensity and dominated the Camels, 3-0 (25-11, 25-18, 25-7) on their way to a third trip to George Rogers Clark for the state quarterfinals in four years. They’ll take on the familiar McCracken County Mustangs at 5 p.m. on Friday.
The stats reflected Notre Dame’s domination. The Pandas had 29 digs, 39 kills, 38 assists, 10 aces and two blocks.
Julia Grace once again led the Pandas with 10 digs to go with two aces. Riley McCloskey had three aces with Lacey Hostetler and Ava Tilden adding two each.
“I think we started off strong with our first contacts,” said Leslie Litmer, Notre Dame co-head coach. “Campbell County did a nice job making some plays and keeping rallies going. But I’m proud of how our girls responded in the third set. We got back to the tempo that we like to play at.”
When the ball came to their side, the Pandas (31-5) displayed their offensive balance. Tilden pounded 11 kills from the outside to lead the Pandas and McCloskey had 10. Gracie Portwood added five with Audrey Dyas, Ava Erpenbeck and Ella Goetz smacking down four each. Setters Lauren Ott and Lizzy Larkins put the balls in the right spots recording 21 and 11 assists, respectively. Goetz and McCloskey also combined for two blocks.
Campbell County had just 12 kills, 14 digs, 12 assists, five blocks and two aces. The two Camels middle blockers Lexi Scharold and Emma Manser had five and three kills each with Faith Whitford landing two. Hope Hamilton had 11 assists and Manser landed two aces.
The Camels (19-14) tried to stay in the game in different ways. A’lon McIntyre had two solo blocks and five digs. Ella Thorwarth had two aces and two digs. Ava Crowl added three digs.
“We just collected our calm, went back to the fundamentals, went back to everything we’ve done in these practices, conditioning and lifting to prepare ourselves for the this moment,” said Mikah Freppon, Campbell County head coach. “Missing serve after serve or just not getting our feet to the ball on serve-receive. Those are big when you’re playing Notre Dame. We haven’t seen that tempo in any of our region or district play so that was something new to us.”
Notre Dame dominated the first game building a 16-5 lead after three Tilden kills. The Camels did score in double-digits before McCloskey ended the game with a kill.
“I think on the outside, they were getting some touches,” Tilden said. “But overall, the setters did a good job keeping it away from (Manser and Scharold). It was pretty easy overall for Riley, Audrey and I to hit.”
The Pandas went on a 7-0 run in the second game to go up 21-9. But the Camels made things interesting with a 5-0 run that Lola Haun started with a kill. Scharold and Hamilton had blocks during the run. But Tilden landed a kill and Campbell County had a service error to win the second game for the Pandas.
“I thought we could have played a lot better. But I think that we’re going to work harder the next couple days and I think we’ll come out strong in the end,” said Hannah Dannenburg, Notre Dame defensive specialist. “I think our serving could have been a lot better. But I think we got the hang of it and it worked really well at the end.”
The Pandas scored the first four points of the third game and never looked back. A McCloskey kill gave the Pandas a 23-6 lead. After Campell County used its second timeout, another McCloskey kill and Goetz ace ended the game.
“That’s something we’re really proud of with this group,” Litmer said. “We can have a really balanced offense across the board. You’re never really focused on one of our hitters because we have three up there that you always have to pay attention to. That’s a compliment to all our players that they come in and work hard every single day. We really focus on bettering ourselves regardless of the contact you are doing. Even if you are a passer, you may have to go out there and drive out some aces. If you’re a hitter, you may go up there and do some passing, play some defense, serve. So I just think it’s making them all-around better players.”
Notre Dame has beaten McCracken County in all four meetings in school history, including three times in the state tournament. The last time came in the state tournament in 2020.
Campbell County came along way with its fourth head coach in four seasons. The Camels won the 10th Region after losing to rival Bishop Brossart in the 37th District semifinals last year and going just 10-16.
“The girls are amazing. They really did a good job building this program and I owe them all the credit because they had each others’ backs coming into this program,” Freppon said. “As a first-year coach, it felt like family. The second I walked into this gym, they had my back and I’m forever grateful them. It was amazing seeing the growth from square one. They did walk out with our heads up high because they accomplished a lot.”
Campbell County graduates six seniors in Manser, Thorwarth, Scharold, Crowl, Penelope Stacey and Amelia Pangallo. The six helped the Camels to a district championship in 2021 and appearances in the region championship games in 2020 and 2021.
