Western Reserve puts away Newbury in four

The Blue Devils advanced to the regional championship match by winning the final two games on Thursday.

By CHUCK HOUSTEAU

Vindicator Correspondent

TWINSBURG — The Western Reserve High volleyball team survived a gut-check moment in the match’s third game against Newbury and survived to cruise to a 3-1 victory over the Black Knights in a Division IV regional semi-final on Thursday night.

The Blue Devils (24-2) will play in the regional championship game after defeating Newbury 25-18, 21-25, 28-26, 25-22, and will face the Norwalk St. Paul on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Twinsburg High School. St. Paul eliminated Cuyahoga Heights in Thursday’s other semifinal.

Western Reserve rallied in the third game by scoring two points on a block and service ace by Hannah Shrader and then put the Knights away convincingly in game four.

“That third game was pivotal for us,” said second-year Western Reserve coach Tracey Hansen. “At that point it was do-or-die time for us.

“We wanted it bad, we wanted to win in four.”

Hansen said she wasn’t sure if she even brought along a game-five stat sheet because not many teams have taken the Devils to five-game matches.

After the two teams split the first two games, Western Reserve opened up a four-point lead in the third game at 12-8 and a three-point lead at 21-18 only to watch the Black Knights come storming back.

The Knights (20-5) tied the game at 22-22 and later held a 26-25 lead on the Devils.

Western Reserve rallied behind a kill by Heather Monoski and a block by Shrader to take a 27-26 lead. The Devils won the game on a wide hit out of bounds by the Knights.

“It was key for us to come all the way back like that,” said Newbury coach Carla Richardson. “To put that game away then would have been a huge momentum boost for us because we would have been up 2 to 1.

“We kept letting [Reserve] get three and four point leads on us and had to expend too much energy getting back in the game. You can’t do that against a good team like Western Reserve.”

It looked liked the fourth game would be anti-climatic after the Blue Devils opened up early leads of 10-6 and 16-9, but Newbury made another last charge.

Fortunately, the Devils senior leadership by Monoski, Victoria Brown, Samantha Donges, Clair Ferrando, Chloe Toman and Kristin O’Connell led the way down the stretch.

Ferrando was credited with 33 assists, whole Brown had 12 kills and eight blocks on the night.

Monoski added 13 kills and eight digs while Donges chipped in with 11 points and six digs.

Shrader had the thrill of putting away the Knights when she scored her team’s 24th point on a block and the final tally on a service ace.

“It felt great,” Shrader said. “I just kept thinking we have to win. When it happened I wasn’t even sure if the game was over.

“I just hope we can play this well on Saturday.”

Hansen said that the seniors have been the key to Reserve’s success all season long.

“I have great leadership with my six seniors,” said Hansen. “They all have good attitudes and they helped pull us through tonight.