After splitting both games of their regular-season meetings, it wasn't much of a surprise the rubber match between St. Ursula and Ursuline Academy needed five sets to send one team home and send another to the Division I regional final.
Leads trading right to the end, Ursuline Academy advanced to the regional final with scores of 18-25, 25-15, 25-21, 15-25, 15-12 and is one more win away from its 15th state tournament appearance.
The Lions were able to play games of comeback ball after dropping set one and falling behind in sets three and five.
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In set three, St. Ursula led as much as 18-14 in the set. Ursuline scored four-straight points and tied the game 18-18 on a service ace by Jolie Brausch. Both teams traded points until the game was tied at 20-20. The Lions again notched a four-point streak to move up 24-20. Ursuline took the set and a 2-1 lead after senior Janie Rumely's score.
"It humbles us a little bit playing that back-and-forth match," Ursuline Academy head coach Ali Butcher said after the match. "SUA's a great team. They're a very balanced team. They've got some good offensive options and they've got a plethora of setters."
The Bulldogs used all those options to win the fourth set easily, 25-15, and force the match into a decisive fifth set. St. Ursula took a 9-4 lead in set five before the Lions played back.
"Our word this year is 'heart' and last year our word was 'grit,'" Butcher said. "We combine those two things and applied here in those two sets specifically. We just keep fighting every point."
The Bulldogs gave up the 9-4 advantage but still led in the set as late as 12-11, thanks to junior Ivey Stocks netting kills and ending Ursuline rallies.
"Ivey was great," St. Ursula head coach Kevin Lucas said. "We tried to get her the ball every time she was available. Our setter Sophia Hudepohl did a really great job distributing and moving the ball around and being a leader for us."
Ivey's final kill of the match gave St. Ursula a 12-10 lead before a service error cut the lead back down to 12-11. Ursuline won the next point to tie the set 12-12 and then the Lions won the next three points to win the set and the match.
"They locked in with their first touch," Lucas said of Ursuline's comeback wins. "Their serve receive and defense improved. They shook a little bit but they bounced right back from their errors. They weren't repeating a lot of mistakes. They cleaned up their errors and made some really clean swings there in the fifth set."
In the end, Ursuline Academy made pushes at the right time and the difference of one play or one point could have been enough to change results.
"We didn't lose the match; they won the match," Lucas said. "All credit to them for doing that. Well-played match on both ends."
St. Ursula was superior in set one. As both teams traded points, no team had won consecutive points until the Bulldogs took a 10-8 lead. The first big momentum shift of the game happened as Ursuline Academy took a 13-12 lead which changed to a 16-13 deficit after four service aces from Hudepohl.
St. Ursula, who was the state's No. 2 team in the final Ohio High School Volleyball Coaches Association poll, finished the year with a 20-6 record.
Ursuline Academy, No. 3 in the state's poll, improved to 20-6 and will play the winner of Seton and Mount Notre Dame in the Division I regional final at Lakota West Saturday. The Lions have reached the regional finals in 16-straight seasons, last missing the cut in 2005.
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