LCC volleyball checks off another goal

PERRYSBURG - After dropping the first two games of a district semifinal match, Tontogany Otsego rallied over Oregon Cardinal Stritch for a spot in Saturday's Division III district final volleyball match against Lima Central Catholic.

So, when the Thunderbirds won the first two games of the championship match at Perrysburg, LCC knew the Knights weren't going anywhere. And true to the prediction, Otsego made a nail-biter of the third game before LCC pulled away for the 3-0 win.

LCC advanced to the regional semifinal in the second match Thursday at Liberty-Benton. The Thunderbirds (23-1) will face Heath, which beat Fredericktown 3-0 in the Hilliard 1 district final.

"When you go up two games to none and build an early lead, you kind of let off the gas. But they're not; they're playing for their lives," LCC coach Dave Franklin said. "It's tournament time. No one's going away. They're going to play their best in that third game, down 2-0."

In the third game, a kill from 6-foot-1 Otsego hitter Chelsea Bollenbacher and an illegal hit penalty on LCC gave the Knights the early 2-1 lead. LCC scored the next six points for the lead, but the Knights (19-5) came back to tie the game twice, at 10-10 and 15-15.

A kill from middle hitter Danielle Taflinger, one of her 10 on the afternoon, started LCC's final push to the 25-19 win. In the match-ending 10-4 run, Rachel Illig had three of her team-high 15 kills.

"The middle block, she did a great job. We'd have one person there, wouldn't have the coverage. It was not only once, but twice, three times. It was like, O.K. guys, they're going to continue to run that all night long and have a field day with it if we aren't able to stop it," Otsego coach Cheryl Jones.

LCC won the first two games 25-18, 25-17. Taflinger added two blocks, Alexis Diglio had 38 assists and JoJo Krieg came up with nine digs and seven kills.

The play of the back row was a key against Bollenbacher, who was held to seven kills. Taylor White led the T-Birds with 15 digs.

"We played amazing defense. That's one of our fortes, that's what we're known for," Franklin said. "We're not the tallest team in the world, but we're closer to the ground so we try to dig everything."

White also had four aces, with three coming late in the second game.

The T-Birds' 13 service errors played a large role in allowing Otsego to hang around. However, Franklin can tolerate, and even expect, the errors.

"Serving will always be our Achilles' heel because we've taken a very aggressive approach serving-wise," Franklin said. "We're not going to just lob it in. ... We'll take our lumps."

Just as in their district semifinal win over Columbus Grove, the T-Birds had to weather raging comebacks from Otsego. And in both, it was the experience gleaned from last year's run to the state title that helped LCC stay composed.

"You take any victory you can get. You win a district championship, you celebrate it," Franklin said. "You never know what's going to happen tomorrow. A ball could bounce against you, and you lose. It was a checkmark for our overall goal, now we refocus for the regional semi's and see what we've got."