Lions Not Quite There
High School Volleyball Update
Lake Catholic takes out the Lions in four sets after dropping the first, 31-29.
Lake Catholic came back from a tough first set loss to defeat Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin in four sets (29-31, 25-20, 25-21 and 25-18) last week at Lake Erie College.
In a match featuring two of the area’s best volleyball teams, the Lions took advantage of several Lake Catholic mistakes in the first set to pull out a 31-29 victory.
The Cougars, though, methodically won the second and third sets before putting the match away with an easy victory in the fourth set.
“You can’t beat a team like NDCL when you miss nine serves, and that’s what we did in the first game,” said Lake Catholic coach Rich Severino. “We just can’t beat ourselves; we just have to make that team beat us and we’ll be fine.”
NDCL (3-1 to start the week) took advantage of the Lake Catholic (3-0) mistakes, but had issues putting the Cougars away in the first set. With the Lions up 22-21, NDCL sophomore Emily Weigand made a crucial block to earn a point. A kill by Ambre Pierce, who will play volleyball at Cleveland State in two years, gave the Lions set point at 24-22. But Lake made a comeback to tie the set at 24.
With Lake up 29-28, the Lions finally made their move. An errant hit by the Cougars tied the score at 29. Then junior Erica Kostelac made an athletic, one-handed diving hit, which found an open spot on the floor to give NDCL another set point. Pierce secured the set with a big slam.
“It was fun,” said Pierce about the first set. “It was heart-racing and brought back the fun of the game. It brought us back to the fundamentals.”
Lake Catholic came out strong in the second set, jumping out to a 19-12 lead, and the Cougars seemed poised to take the second set. However, the Lions ripped off a six-point run to cut the gap to 20-18. Cougar senior Jamie Vargo made several fine plays off NDCL mistakes to help Lake take the second set.
“First ball contact,” said Lions head coach Tom Ray, when asked what went wrong in the second set. “We just had to control better. We got a little lax on our servicing and serve game. As soon as our service game went, our offense slowed down. When we speed things up, we’re pretty hard to compete with.”
The third set was very similar to the second set. Vargo, at several times, outshined several of the D-I recruits on the floor.
“Jamie Vargo played lights out — she played awesome,” said Severino. “Lauren Witte, we expect her to play like that, but Jamie played really, really well.”
For both squads, this match was played very early this year.
“We’ve never played Lake in a match this early in the season,” Ray noted. “Honestly, the competition we faced hasn’t been as strong as Lake, so this is our first real game. It’s kind of been us just cutting our teeth. We have a lot of youngsters on this team. We do have some talented seniors. We just have to put it all together.”
Severino agreed with Ray. “We didn’t put too much focus on it [the rivalry] because it was the third game of the season, so it really doesn’t mean anything. But it is NDCL-Lake, which is a huge rivalry — you always want to win that one.”
The game was supposed to be played at McGarry Gymnasium on the campus of NDCL. However, the gym is still undergoing repairs from severe water damaged caused by a summer storm.
While the Lions are appreciative of having other options to play their games, they can’t wait to regain their home court advantage.
“We’re used to being at home for this game; it’s a different gym,” Ray said. “I think a lot of it has to do with the mental part. You’re still traveling every game. Usually you have a little bit of a break there, but when you have to travel every day for games, it gets old after a few. We’ll find a way to fight through it.”
These two rivals have the chance to see each other quite a few times this season. Counting regularly scheduled games, tournaments and the postseason, Lake-NDCL could face each other five more times this year.
Both coaches are eager to play again because they feel the best way for their teams to get better is to play the best teams. After all, both schools should be on a collision course to play for the district championship.
“I truly believe that one of us is going to the Final Four because I don’t think there’s anyone at regional who can beat either one of us,” said Severino. “Whoever wins that district championship has a great shot at getting to the Final Four.”
