'We fight': Mercy McAuley battles back to defeat Marlington in DII state semifinals
The Mercy McAuley Wolves haven't won the first set of a match since Oct. 28. In each of the three matches since, they've regrouped to win three straight sets. That's exactly what the Wolves did as they defeated Marlington 22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-15 in the Division II state volleyball semifinal.
As the postseason has progressed, the opponents have gotten tougher. Marlington validated that by coming back from deficits of three, five and seven points at various times.
"Yeah, just made a few adjustments where we wanted to place the ball and got our serve-receive together," Marlington head coach Stephanie Tortola said of her team's success.
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Communication issues plagued the Wolves in the early going as they adjusted to the bright lights of a bigger arena. Despite rushing out to leads in the first half of every set, Mercy McAuley had trouble stringing together multiple points in the latter stages.
"What I love about this team is even when it happens, we are used to it at this point and we fight. We figured out a way to fight, settle in, and of course in a new arena, a new environment, first ever trip to state, like, there's going to be a little bit of an adrenaline rush," Mercy McAuley head coach Sam Gagnon said.
While junior Layne Graffice is an all-around statistical leader for the Dukes, sophomore Giana Bogunovich gave her team a dynamic look with eight kills. Libero Jacsyn Hilliard had two of the team's six aces, five of which came in the first two sets.
McAuley, however, had 14 aces up its sleeve. Seniors Maria Drapp and Elly Drake combined for 11 aces, including back-to-back perfect serves on four different occasions.
"We worked hard the past couple of weeks of practice with our serving game, so that was good that it showed up, and then also, I think us (being) aggressive got them out of system and we were able to play defense behind it," Drapp said.
Gagnon's key word with this team has been "momentum." Even as the Wolves took a 2-1 lead in the match, it never truly felt like they had momentum. But two separate three-point rallies gave them separation in the fourth set. Five straight points, punctuated by a Caroline Moore kill, ended the match.
"I knew if we could handle the first contact, the momentum would be ours," Gagnon said.
Feed me more!
Against a smaller Marlington team, Gagnon made a point of getting the ball to her middle hitters. That responsibility fell on senior setter Maria Drapp, who finished with 43 assists.
"I think our passing picked up at the end of the game. We set our middles a lot, which also opened up the pin hitters because there was one-on-one matchups," Drapp said.
Elly Drake finished with a team-high 14 kills. Ashley Sess was one of four players with double-digit putaways while leading the Wolves with five blocks.
Senior salute
Marlington's senior class of Katelyn Bernard, Chelsea Evanich, Emily Gainer, Alex Ritchie, Janelle Swisher accrued a 88-19 record in four seasons. The class also made history as the first Dukes squad to advance to the state semifinals.
"I think since we've just been playing together since the third or fourth grade, being able to make it here together since being that young is just an incredible achievement," senior Janelle Swisher said.
What's next for Mercy McAuley?
The Wolves will play Gilmour Academy at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4. The Lancers swept Bishop Hartley in the second semifinal. Gilmour is 18-10, but has played a challenging schedule that includes Mount Notre Dame, Lake Catholic, St. Joseph Academy and Seton.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio highs School volleyball: Mercy McAuley to play for state title
