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Canfield spikes Liberty
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Canfield’s Jaqueline Cook (4) tries to get a spike past Liberty’s Leah Leshnack (12) during a Division II district semifinal volleyball match Tuesday night at Boardman High School. Canfield won in three games and will meet Salem in a district final on Thursday.
By Greg Gulas
BOARDMAN
The scrappy Liberty Leopards extended the defending Division II district champion Canfield Cardinals to four games before losing their Oct. 13 regular-season finale at Cardinals Gymnasium.
On Tuesday, Canfield needed barely an hour to sweep away the Leopards as they advanced to their second consecutive district final.
The Cardinals stopped the Leopards, 25-17, 25-15 and 26-24 and will now meet the Salem Quakers on Thursday.
Salem earned a title appearance by defeating the Southeast Pirates in the nightcap, 25-23, 25-23, 19-25 and 25-17.
“We struggled early in the season with some injuries and it cost us, but this team has played together all season long and has bought into what I’ve been selling,” first-year Cardinals coach John Tokash said. “We have two seniors, three sophomores and two freshmen among our starters and that is our nucleus. The entire team listens and wants to learn and that has been the key to our success thus far.
“Having already played Liberty we knew that they were a strong team. Our goal was to ace them and just make things difficult all night.”
The win was the 18th consecutive for the Cardinals (21-3) with their last loss coming to Cuyahoga Falls back on Sept. 8.
The loss closed out the season for Liberty (19-6) and in the process put an end to their five-game win streak.
Three points each by Darby Hepola and Janie Rafoth keyed a 9-2 Cardinals run in the first game as Canfield won it.
In the second game, co-captains Sabrina Mangapora and Nicole Luklan keyed a 12-5 Canfield run. Six points by Mangapora and five by Luklan in that game turned a 5-3 deficit into a 17-10 advantage and proved to be way too much for the Leopards to overcome as Canfield forged a 2-0 advantage.
“We came here tonight with the attitude that everything had to be earned and nothing would be given to us, knowing full well that we needed to work harder since the last time we played them,” Mangapora said. “We lost seven players from last year’s team and have a young squad so we were a little nervous at the start.
“Once we settled down we were alright. Our goal since the beginning of the season was to repeat as District champions and we’re in position now to make that happen now.”
Mangapora finished with 13 kills. Luklan had six kills and two blocks.
“They’re a scrappy group and we knew what to look for,” Luklan said. “Both teams should get the credit because each worked hard for everything all night.”
Luklan staked the Cardinals to the early 3-0 lead in the finale and twins Janie and Rachel Rafoth combined for six points to increase the Canfield margin to 19-12.
Leah Leshnack then keyed a 12-5 Liberty run to knot the game at 24, but a Mangapora kill and Jamie Rafoth service point gave the Cardinals a victory and put the end to the Leopards’ upstart season.
“Canfield put the ball down when they had to and they were the better team tonight,” Liberty coach Dave Sewell said. “They’re an excellent team and will do well as their season continues. We knew that Sabrina was going to get her kills so we just wanted to minimize the damage. We wanted her to earn everything and at the same time, be resilient enough to move on when that happened.
“What hurt us tonight was that we had two balls drop that shouldn’t have and four service errors. You cannot have one service error against a team like Canfield and expect to win.”
Hepola added six blocks and six kills while Rachel Rafoth had 13 digs and four aces for the Cardinals. Janie Rafoth had four aces and 17 assists.
Mackenzie Stanley paced the Leopards with 11 kills and nine assists and Mariah Willis added 13 assists and three points. Jenna Sewell registered six kills and six digs.
In the nightcap, Carrin Costal had 17 blocks and three kills while Carson Harron registered 22 assists, two kills and a block to lead Salem.
Alana Woodward had 15 pints, 15 kills, five aces and 11 digs for the Pirates.
Thursday’s district final is set for 6 p.m.