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Berkshire vs. Lake Catholic volleyball: Cougars smother Badgers with fast style of play

Oct. 29—MEDINA — There's no secret that the Lake Catholic volleyball team has its destination in mind for the 2022 season.

The Ervin J. Nutter Center in Fairborn, the host venue for the state volleyball tournament.

The Cougars also know how they want to get there.

Fast.

Lake Catholic showed off that speedy style of play in a 25-13, 25-15, 25-20 win over Berkshire in the Division III district championship match at Medina on Oct. 29.

Spreading the ball around the entire front line, with an intermittent back-row set to keep the opposition honest, top-seeded Lake Catholic overwhelmed the sixth-seeded Badgers to clinch a spot in the Barberton Regional. Lake (23-2) will face Columbiana Crestview at 6 p.m. on Nov. 3 in the first of two regional matches.

Berkshire bows out with a 16-9 record.

"I think the girls really showed up tonight," Coach Kara Oster said. "We had some slower-paced matches the last couple games, so we were excited to have a faster-paced game today. We really played well and got everybody involved. It was fun."

Berkshire was up to the challenge at the start of every set. The Badgers held a 6-5 lead in the first on a Sierra Berman block before the Cougars rattled off five straight service points from Ava Budrys-Rini for an 11-6 lead that they built on as the sent went on.

Then in the second, it was tied 5-5 before a 9-0 run — fueled by two Hannah Pattie ace serves — opened a 14-5 gorge that the purple-clad Badgers wouldn't climb out of.

Berkshire coach Joni Prots loved her team's competitive nature. But she credited Lake for having a varied, fast-paced offense that gave her team trouble. Replicating that type of play in practice was not only improbable, but also impossible.

"They're not the No. 1 team in the state for nothing," Prots said. "We knew that coming in. I'm actually very proud with the way we played. I don't think the scores are indicative of how hard we played.

"We executed the things we talked about executing. They played hard for three sets when they could have given up at any point. I'm proud of them for that."

Case in point the third set. Even though the Cougars were on the brink of closing out the Badgers, Sierra Berman and Marissa Rish recorded kills that cut the margin to 24-20. But a dump-kill over the net by Pattie found the floor in the middle of a Badgers defense that ran frantically all night trying to track down Cougar spikes.

"It was just one point here or there we needed to make that we weren't able to," Prots said. "But it wasn't for lack of effort. That's a great team on the other side. We competed. That's what we wanted to do."

Oster and her players agreed that Lake Catholic's regular-season schedule, a virtual Who's Who of Ohio volleyball juggernauts, helped the Cougars prepare for this current Division III tournament after participating in the Division II loop in recent years.

"I feel our hard schedule prepares us physically and mentally," libero Emma Berganti said.

Couple that with the ferocious offensive attack Lake Catholic brings and — well — that's a lot to deal with.

"It's pretty tough to defend," hitter Katie Sowko said. "Hannah (Pattie, the setter) really moves the ball around well."

Even when Berkshire competed in early sets, Lake's runs took them out of it.

"We have some big-time hitters on this team," Oster said. "When they get those monstrous kills, it's pretty exciting and it gets us going."

How far remains to be seen. But there's no doubt where the Cougars want to get — to the Nutter Center to win a Division III state championship trophy to go with the ones they've won in Division II.

The faster, the better.