Centerville volleyball holds off stubborn Springboro

Elks pick up level of play after Panthers give them a scare in sectional final.

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By John Cummings, Contributing Writer 11:34 PM Saturday, October 22, 2011

WEST CARROLLTON — The plan went only slightly astray for the Centerville volleyball team as it cruised to its fourth straight Division I sectional title at West Carrollton High School on Saturday.

“The plan was to win three and get out of here,” Centerville coach Chris Conner said after the Elks improved to 21-2 with a 25-10, 25-19, 23-25, 25-17 win over Springboro.

Springboro (12-13), however, decided to prolong the Elks’ preparations for the homecoming dance with a four-set match.

“Whenever you are playing a team that is facing elimination, you really have to play,” Conner said. “That third game, if they lose they are out.”

The Elks jumped all over the Panthers in the opening match. They ran off the first four points and extended the lead to 22-8 on a kill by Allee Johnson before the Panthers had a chance to hit double digits.

“I don’t know if we were intimidated at first or what,” Springboro coach Kevin Sedensky said.

“We knew we had to play our ‘A’ game from the start. In a game with little runs of momentum, each point is critical and Centerville never let us get on a run ... but at least we did a better job the last three games of controlling their runs.”

The Elks took control of the second game after a tip by Baylee Johnson. That gave them a 17-16 lead to spark a 9-3 run that ended on a roll shot by Sarah Burtenshaw.

Springboro battled back from a 12-9 deficit to take the third game on a kill by Ashley Wenz, but the Elks closed things out in set four with a 19-8 run.

“Sometimes we play much better against higher level teams,” Elks senior Sydne Benge said. “Sometimes, we don’t respond well against a team we know we can beat and we dig ourselves a hole. Losing the third set inspired us to play better; it challenged us to push through it. We thought it was easy after the first set, but had to realize it was no joke, they were a good team.”

Lebanon 3, Fairmont 1: For Lebanon’s Mandee Ehrlich, the last swing was the sweetest.

The senior crushed a cross-court kill on championship point to give the Warriors (20-4) a 25-15, 18-25, 25-15, 25-22 win over Fairmont (15-9) in the second match-up of the day.

“I think we came in with confidence, but to get that final point done was a big relief,” Ehrlich said after finishing the night with 18 kills.

“We expected it to be close, but we were finally able to put everything together today.”

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