JEFFERSON-It’s come down to the district title matchup each of the last 6 years. For some, it may be old hat, but for the players and coaches of the Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin Lions and Lake Catholic Cougars, it’s the goal to be in that spot. This season, the teams split 4 matches, but the big one came in the Division II district title again, and the Lions made some spectacular plays defensively to keep big Cougar hits alive in taking a thrilling 25-20, 25-20, 25-16 win.
“Our defense really came up for us tonight in a big time way,” NDCL coach Tom Ray said amid jubilation that has usually gone the way of the Cougars over the years.
With both teams showing signs of nerves in the early going, big plays and big spikes provided the narrowest of margins in NDCL’s favor in each game to keep the Cougars (21-4) from gaining momentum. Lake also made some great plays, but the Lions got some big kills from Erika Kostelac, Ambre Pierce, and Stephanie Williams that did find floor. Their plays helped a few scoring runs in each game that broke open an otherwise tight match.
“This is like, so unreal,” senior slammer Williams said. “As a team, we’ve just kept improving every year. Winning the district has been my dream for a long time, and this win will help us get ready for a push for state.”
Williams has been part of rapid growth in the Lion program ever since , as a freshman, she helped her team put away a powerful Jefferson team in district action, and now she has come full circle.
This win is another step in the process for juniors Kostelac and Pierce.
“This is the last game here for the seniors,” Kostelac said. “We wanted to have some fun and definitely didn’t want to lose.”
Pierce knew what was in front of her in the Lake uniforms.
“We know they’re a pretty good team,” she said. “With any team, if you keep applying pressure, they may crack. We made some great plays when we had to, and I couldn’t be happier.”
In the first set, a Lauren Witte block provided a 20-20 tie for the Cougars as neither team could gain any edge.
Pierce untied it with a kill, then stepped up to serve 4 points in a row, the last trio on Williams kills.
The Lions had an early lead in set two until senior Ellie Hasbein stepped up with her team down, 14-13. Colleen Wilhelm sandwiched a sweet dink between a pair of monster kills to take the lead at 16-14, but a long serve turned the ball over, Williams served up an ace to the back line to tie the set, and Kostelac, Pierce and Emily Suppel put shots to the floor for a 19-16 lead for NDCL, and a pair of ace serves through the hands of back line receivers for Lake closed out the second set at 25-20 as well.
Sensing the kill, NDCL jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the third set. After the Cougars fought back to tie it at 5-5, Kostelac slammed home another kill to untie it, and the closest LC would get was 17-13.
As you might expect, the loss sat tough on the hearts of Cougar faithful.
Senior Erin Walsh has battled back problems for a long time, but still dressed with the idea of being with her team. Her tears flowed, but the pride in her team also was right there.
“We had a great team again this year,” she said. “We worked hard together. This is not the way we wanted it to end, but we gave it our best shot.”
Lake coach Rich Severino was disappointed as well.
“I don’t know what it was tonight,” he responded. “This was not one of our better matches. I don’t know why, but we missed some things we normally don’t. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it’s because we’re still a young team, I can’t put a finger on it. We played hard, but made some mistakes.”
Many kill attempts by Lake that looked like sure points suddenly found themselves back in play as NDCL rotated quickly to fill gaps, and with superb setting by the whole team on the floor, the Lions got good sets which Kostelac, Williams, and Pierce powered to the floor in a hurry. The Cougars couldn’t do it as spectacularly, and this cat fight went directly to the bigger cat, the Lions.
The win sets up a regional semifinal for NDCL on Wednesday at Stow High School.
If the Lions keep making the routine plays around super stuff defensively, a state run may well be in the cards.
