New Bremen’s Olivia Heitkamp (4) hits a spike against Crestview’s Cali Gregory during a Thursday Division IV state semifinal at Wright State’s Nutter Center. See more high school volleyball photos at LimaScores.com.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
DAYTON — Crestview displayed that never-give-up-attitude that got to this point against New Bremen in the Division IV state semifinals but it was not enough for the No. 16 ranked Knights to overcome the No. 1 Cardinals who recorded a 25-8, 25-20, 23-25, 25-10 win Thursday.
New Bremen (27-1) advances to face No. 14 Monroeville (25-4), which defeated No. 8 Newark Catholic 25-22, 25-21, 25-16, in the state finals at 11 a.m. Saturday. Crestview ends its year with a 20-8 record.
“I am just really, really proud of all these girls and the teammates in the locker room and our whole community,” New Bremen head coach Diana Kramer said. “Our community came out in full force today … and most of those people don’t have a daughter or grand daughter playing. They are here because of the words across our chest. New Bremen. It means something to us. It means something to our town and it is humbling.”
Crestview head coach Tammy Gregory, who was emotional after the loss, was disappointed with the defeat but proud of her team’s efforts and what the Knights had accomplished this season.
“These girls are like my daughter and it is an honor to get here,” Gregory said. “I think first and foremost it was so big to come back in that third set because I think we could have just folded and that is what is so nice about this group. They never give up. They don’t give up but today wasn’t our day.
“Going up against a team like New Bremen who have so much experience here and we knew it was going to be a battle and just a lot of unforced errors and things we could have controlled better but I have to give it to them (New Bremen), You know, offensively, defensively and an amazing setter and they had a lot we couldn’t handle today.”
New Bremen’s all-state performer Olivia Heitkamp was one of those weapons as she recorded 22 kills to lead the Cardinals. Teammate Megan Reinhart and Melina Schroeder each had seven. Schraeder also accounted for 35 assists and she made 19 digs. Abi Powers led the team with 22 digs.
Coming into the match Gregory said she felt the girls were confident but that was immediately tested in the first two sets.
At the onset of the third set, New Bremen jumped out to a 7-1 advantage as it appeared everyone was waiting for the fat lady to sing.
But Crestview rallied and tied it at 13 and then down the stretch was able to pull out the two-point win to force a fourth set.
“They knew what was on the line and what they wanted to accomplish this year,” Gregory said. “We just said we have to focus on every point because I think I called a timeout, we were down 6-1 at that time, but I had confidence in these girls and they have confidence and we said this is the game we have to have to move and that is what we did.”
This was the first set the Cardinals had dropped in the playoffs.
However, the Knights were unable to sustain that momentum as the Cardinals broke out to a 10-2 advantage in the fourth set and Crestview never recovered.
Kramer said she believes in powerful short phrases and after that third set defeat told her girls to reset.
“Reset and refocus,” Kramer said. “We played an incredibly tough regular season schedule and it is not out of the ordinary that we are pushed to the limits and we don’t win a set and we know if we control the ball on our side of the net we are really difficult to beat so we looked each other in the eyes and said we are going to find a way.”
Crestview’s Adelyn Figley led the team with 18 kills. Cali Gregory dished out 10 assists and Eli Kline finished with a team leading 18 digs. Figley finished with 14 digs.
“I think that anyone that wasn’t in the state tournament would want to be here right now,” said Laci McCoy, the lone senior on the squad. “It is no fun losing but at the same time we are lucky to end it here.”
Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
