Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The Oak Harbor volleyball team capped its best season in program history with a Division IV regional championship match appearance.
Despite the loss to Buckeye Valley, the Rockets (22-5) experienced the thrill of the program’s first-ever regional semifinal victory behind the trio of Alayna Hall, Tatum Baumgartner, and Myley Sandwisch, who combined for 44 kills in a 25-19, 25-16, 25-14 win over Cortland Lakeview at Lexington High School on Oct. 30.
“Honestly, it's the best we've ever played all season,” Oak Harbor head coach Kaytlynn Sandwisch said following the semifinal victory. “I obviously wish that we could have started like this, but this is when it really matters. This is the moment that you work the hardest for. I'm so glad for all of the struggles and things that we faced in regular season because now we're able to handle the adversity — get down five points and still be able to win the next set or whatever. I'm just unbelievably so proud of them and all of the work — the energy, the time, and everything that they put into it.”
Hall was a force all night, producing a match-best 18 kills, including eight in the first set and seven more in the second. Baumgartner added 15 terminations, which included at least four in each frame. Myley Sandwisch added 11 kills and three aces, including six terminations in the clinching set alone.
“Everyone hit the ball over the net,” Kaytlynn Sandwisch said. “Yes, we got blocked, but we hit the ball over the net. We're getting there. I want to be that aggressive team. I constantly am telling them, ‘Hit the ball, hit the ball.’ Like, if you're tipping the ball, you're getting an automatic kill because you are tipping the ball where there's no spot or where no one's at in that spot. From my standpoint, I'm so proud that I'm able to trust my setters to set all six of my hitters at all times, no matter who's out there.”
Oak Harbor also got a pair of kills from Morgan Lalonde and one apiece from Laney Schmidt and Maddie Schiets. Bella Rios added a pair of aces, while Schmidt and Ava Lynch had one ace each.
Hall had five kills early in the first set as Oak Harbor jumped out to an 8-3 lead. Three terminations from Baumgartner and an ace from Rios on consecutive points pushed the lead to eight. Three more kills from Hall, and another from Baumgartner, gave the Rockets a 20-14 lead, which forced Cortland Lakeview’s second timeout.
Oak Harbor concluded the set with four straight points, a stretch that included terminations from Lalonde and Sandwisch.
Hall added five more kills as Oak Harbor jumped out to a 14-8 lead in the second set, which forced a timeout. A kill from Sandwisch and an ace from Schmidt pushed it to 19-12 and forced another timeout. Two more kills from Hall and another from Baumgartner finished off the set.
The two teams split the first 14 points in the third set. Then Sandwisch took over. Back-to-back terminations, followed by an attack error from Cortland Lakeview (15-11), forced a timeout. The run continued with a kill from Baumgartner, another from Sandwisch, and an ace from Rios for a 13-7 lead.
After a kill ended the 6-0 run, Sandwisch added kills on three of the next five points for a 16-10 lead. She tacked on an ace for an 18-11 margin, which forced another timeout, and Oak Harbor ultimately concluded the set on an 18-7 run following the early split.
“These girls truly, they've earned it,” Kaytlynn Sandwisch said. “I talk about this, try to at least talk about it every time, yes, my girls are playing, but my bench people, they're the energy that feed my court. They are always jumping. They're always excited. It's just a team. I have 11 girls, and all 11 are amazing. I'm just so proud of them. I'm just, I'm so happy for them. They've worked hard. They've earned this.”
Oak Harbor’s only other regional semifinal appearances came in 2018 and 1989. The most recent one was when Kaytlynn Sandwisch was a senior on the volleyball squad.
Lake falls to Buckeye Valley
Oak Harbor’s opponent in the regional final, Buckeye Valley (24-3), knocked off Lake 25-17, 25-21, 25-21 in the other semifinal and featured Ohio State commit Alia Schoonover. Including the Oak Harbor win, they’ve lost just one set since Sept. 6.
Meanwhile, Lake had a six-match winning streak snapped.
“It’s silly, but I think we came in super tight and nervous,” Lake head coach Amy Vorst said. “Our girls were prepared. They knew exactly what (Buckeye Valley) had. Obviously, if you have an Ohio State commit on your team, you’re going to be pretty good. She was phenomenal.”
Buckeye Valley, which pushed its winning streak to 15, controlled nearly the entire match behind the play of Schoonover.
“Every time I watch her play, I am amazed,” Buckeye Valley coach Randy Haas said. “She’s going to Ohio State to play, and absolutely she should. She’s phenomenal. Every time I see her, I’m just like, that’s unbelievable. She’s crazy good.”
Calli Conley finished with a team-high 16 digs for the Flyers, who also received 18 assists and 11 digs from Lucy Boos. Savanna Saunders contributed 17 assists and seven digs. Kennedy Falkenberg also produced a double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs. Mylah Vorst totaled a team-best 14 kills, and Harlow Haberland chipped in six. Laynie Meadows finished with seven kills and 14 digs.
The key moment in the match came after back-to-back kills, followed by a block from Haberland, tied the third set at 12 as the Flyers looked to extend the match.
However, Buckeye Valley called its first timeout of the match at that point, and the next sequence sealed Lake’s fate.
Out of the break, Lake had a service error, which was followed by three consecutive aces from Buckeye Valley’s Leia Schoonover — Alia’s sister.
“It was a huge momentum switch … I think it was just nerves,” Amy Vorst said. “I think a big takeaway for our team is we missed eight serves and had four aces. That’s not typical Lake Flyer volleyball.”
The Flyers didn’t give up as Falkenberg had consecutive aces to pull within 21-19, but it wasn’t enough in the end.
“I’m glad the girls fought back,” Vorst said. “They never laid down. I thought Calli Conley played out of her mind. She serve-received at 2.375, and for the volleyball people out there, they know that’s phenomenal. She killed it.”
Lake played in its third-consecutive regional tournament after capturing the program’s sixth-consecutive Northern Buckeye Conference title.
Eastwood falls to Huron
Despite another big performance from Mack Miller, the Eastwood volleyball team dropped a Division V regional semifinal to Huron, 25-21, 25-19, 25-20, inside the Elida Fieldhouse on Oct. 29.
With the loss, Eastwood concluded its season at 18-8.
“This season as a whole, I’m so proud of my girls,” Eastwood coach Sarah Frank said. “This was a group who really leaned hard into their faith, and they really leaned hard into just being good teammates. We had a lot of ups and downs this season. We had more losses than we typically are used to, but they just kept coming back. This group, as a whole, had such a positive and amazing attitude and just love of the game. They made a really big impact on the program.”
Miller led Eastwood with 21 kills and 11 digs. Olivia Riter, who broke the program’s single-season assist record in the loss, finished with 27 assists and 13 digs. Stella Chlebowski also had 13 digs, while Ivy Schrader registered nine digs and five kills.
The Eagles trailed 7-4 early in the opening set, but a kill and an ace from Schrader, followed by a pair of kills from Miller, helped Eastwood reel off five straight. Miller added two more terminations moments later for a 12-8 advantage, which forced Huron’s first timeout.
Huron steadied the ship a bit and trailed by just two, but kills from Miller and Schrader, followed by a combo block from Braily Moenter and Vanessa Evans, and another termination from Schrader gave Eastwood an 18-12 lead, forcing another timeout from the Tigers, who entered the night having won eight consecutive matches, including 20 straight sets.
“Early on we just had high energy, and we were really low error offensively,” Frank said. “We were placing the ball really well. I felt like we were scrappy on defense that first set.”
Eastwood remained ahead 19-14 following Miller’s sixth termination of the set, but Huron responded with four straight to force a timeout from the Eagles. They added three to that scoring streak out of the break, which forced another timeout, and they eventually reeled off 10 straight points and concluded the frame on a 13-3 run.
A late 6-0 run from Huron proved fatal for Eastwood in the second set after the two teams split the first 34 points of the frame.
“We were way more high error serving than we normally are,” Frank said. “I think that made us a little more hesitant at the service line. Then they were able to just pass better. We didn’t ace them very much, and we didn’t get them out of system very much in serve receive because we just weren’t serving as well as we normally do.”
After tying the third set at six apiece following a termination from Vanessa Evans, Eastwood saw Huron reel off five straight and nine of the next 10 points. A late 5-0 run pulled the Eagles within 22-20, but it wasn’t enough in the end.
Frank was proud of her team’s late fight.
“This is obviously a very intense setting to play in,” she said. “And my girls just honestly did not have their best night, but I am proud of them. I was really worried that third set that they were just going to let them run away with it. I told them that’s one thing I’m not okay with. We’re going to push, and we’re going to try to still take this set. I am just really proud of them for coming back and getting back to 20 points in that last set when we were down so much.”
