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Orrville wins it all in first trip to State By Jim Jicha “I’m not going to worry about next year. What happens next year happens next year. I’m just going to enjoy this”. So said Orrville coach Diane Shanklin when asked about the prospects for next season after her team had beaten Versailles 15-5, 15-9 to win it all in their first ever trip to state. The Red Riders lose only one player to graduation this year so next season’s prospects look promising indeed. But who cares about that when you have a state championship to celebrate in the here and now? Shanklin said she knew in summer tournaments before the season that her team had the potential to win the state. But she noted “the team is not the same as at the beginning (of the season)”, when they lost their opening match to West Holmes. The Red Riders won out after that to end on a 28 match win streak. Shanklin thought that first loss was actually a good thing. She may be right because Orrville appeared to get stronger as the season progressed. They took Mansfield Madison in two on the road to clinch their league title. Then they rolled through the tournament winning all eight matches in two. Their closest game was 15-11, and they throttled Villa Angela-St. Joseph 15-6, 15-6 in the regional and trounced Westfall 15-1, 15-2 in the semifinal. And the Red Riders pretty much shut down the Tigers in the final, except for one big run in game two. Orrville broke Versailles’ initial serve on a short set kill by Erica Short. Then they ran Short on a slide to the right while Kara Guster set to Katie O’Hare who found a wide open net on the left. Versailles took their only lead of game one when Kara Hemmelgarn sent a spike down the line and Sarah Meyer served an ace. But Orrville’s hitting star TaNeisha Winters went high to pound a spike for sideout. Orrville moved ahead 4-2 on Tiger miscues as the teams exchanged ten sideouts. Winters blasted two spikes, the second from the left side to the right corner. After Mallorie Brand’s kill gave service to the Tigers, she and Hemmelgarn each solo blocked Winters to narrow the lead to 6-4. But a hitting error ended the mini run. Guster served up an ace and continued serving until Orrville was up 13-4. Ashley Hershberger had two kills, Winters one and Tiger miscues did the rest of the damage. Cheri Stammen’s kill ended the run, and she followed with a tip for a point. But Katelyn Orr’s cross court spike put Orrville’s Celia Mastroine at the line. Erica Short’s block of a low spike was followed by an errant Tiger hit and game one was over. Orrville scored first in game two on an ace by Orr. But Meyer and Staci Condon teamed up for a double block and Versailles put together their run, which started on a four hits error followed by four sideouts. Cheri Stammen scored kills on a spike and a tip. Hemmelgarn served consecutive aces. After four more sideouts Stammen followed with an ace. Mallory Grilliot and Condon scored on kills and Brand’s block of a low hit put Versailles on top 9-1. Unfortunately for the Tigers the Red Riders called a timeout and made an adjustment, moving right side in to dig. It worked as Orrville began passing effectively with Short leading the way. Slowly but surely the Red Riders added points to their tally, and although there were thirty one sideouts before it was over, Versailles never scored again. Short’s knock down kill caused the first sideout after the timeout. The Red Riders scored on kills by Winters, Ashley Hershberger and O’Hare. They scored on ace serves by Guster, Mastroine and Katelyn Orr. And they scored on miscues by the Tigers. The sideouts were marked by intense volleys, hard spikes that were into the stands and some great individual plays. Short and Guster teamed up on some nice slides. Short also made a great diving dig that parlayed into a sideout when Versailles committed an error. Meyer and Brand had some great kills for Versailles. The last sideout came with Orrville up 12-9 when Winters smoked a cross court kill. She headed back to the line and served up an ace. A spike by Hershberger put the Riders at match point. Winters then delivered the match winner with another serve that was dug out of bounds. Even in defeat Versailles coach Jeremy Riley was pleased with his team’s performance saying “they fought to the very end”. He added that “you have to kick us down until the ref says it’s over”. When asked whether he expected to get this far Riley’s response was “You don’t expect to get there (state), you just shoot for it”, adding that it was a “dream run to get here”. The Tigers coach believes being in the Midwest Athletic Conference helped. The players saw great hitters in conference matches and didn’t get shell shocked come tournament time. Versailles has come a long way since going 6-17 six years ago, and being in the MAC helped that too. This fall has been a busy time for Versailles fans. The girls cross country team won state and the boys finished sixth. And the undefeated football team is still alive -- they will play Clinton-Massie this coming weekend in a regional final. Getting back to Orrville, Coach Shanklin said her team’s motto this year was “this is our time” and that in the last timeout her players realized it really was “their time”. Looking at the kids they have coming back a motto comes to mind for 2004 -- “to be continued”. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Versailles beat Genoa 15-13, 15-8 Thursday night to advance to the finals. Kara Hemmelgarn had 10 kills, Cheri Stammen 16 assists and Sarah Meyer 18 digs. Leaders for Genoa were Nicole Nissen with 10 kills, Carrie Gnepper 28 assists and Gnepper and Sarah Gerkensmeyer with 12 and 11 digs, respectively. Genoa led Versailles in kills 31-29, but the Comets were undone by errors committing 21 to 11 for Versailles. Orrville completely shut down Westfall 15-1, 15-2 in a semifinal that was over in a half hour. Erica Short had 9 digs, Kara Guster 22 assists and Erica Short had 7 digs. Westfall was led by Kelsey Sewards with 6 kills and Randi Rodgers 7 assists. Nikki Ward, Maleah Thornton and Beth Reed each had 5 digs.
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