Recap: Talawanda volleyball dominates Hughes in first round of OHSAA playoffs

Princeton High School’s campus hulks the skyline as cars exit Interstate 75. The football and baseball fields are crowded with sports participants ranging from small children in oversized football pads, to older soccer players running drills. 

Just across the street is the auditorium, where Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) postseason volleyball took place between the Talawanda High School Brave and Hughes High School Big Red on Oct. 21.

The Brave came into the match as the eighth seed in the Southwest region, ending the regular season with a 12-10 record in the Southwestern Buckeye League standings. They finished with a 6-4 record in league play, good for third behind Bellbrook and Ross High Schools, who marched into playoff games with 20-2 overall records and a 9-1 league record.

Hughes, on the other hand, entered Princeton High School on gameday as the 13th seed with a 16-3 record (13-1 in the Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference). First year Head Coach Aniah Hollowell and a team led by a starting group of mostly seniors finished with the best record in the entire conference. 

While the regular season is one thing, the postseason is another. And the match ultimately showed such a truth.

The beginning of the first set was a feeling-out process for the Brave and Big Red. Points bounced back and forth between the two teams, splitting the first 10. Then, Talawanda went on a run. 

Senior captain and outside hitter Abby Patton took the ball behind the end line and she and her teammates went to work. Five straight kills from the Talawanda front row put the visitors up 10-5, and two of the next three points were aces from Patton herself. This put the Brave up eight points and forced a Hughes timeout – the first and only one the team would take through the entire match.

The Big Red came out and appeared to have adjusted course momentarily, scoring a couple of points right from the break, but the bleeding did not stop. Talawanda continued to force mistakes and take advantage when they had possession, going up 22-8. Then, two straight kills from sophomore outside hitter Camryn McCullough, along with an ace from junior setter and right side Lyla Perry closed out the first set for the Brave 25-8.

The second set started similarly to the first, with the two teams being within a point through the first five (Talawanda led 3-2), and then another run from the Brave separated them from their opponent. Junior middle hitter Ava Vocke took over the offense, seemingly on the end of every set and smashing every ball with authority. Patton also continued her reign over the service area, recording another in the midst of Vocke’s excellence up front. 

Talawanda ended up leading 12-4 and 14-5 before junior defensive specialist Maggie Reynolds took the ball into the service area and also had her way with the Hughes defense. 

With Reynolds launching the ball over the net, the Brave scored six straight points to enhance their lead to 20-5. 

Hughes managed two straight points to make the set 20-7, but the damage had already been done.  A mistake by the Big Red led to a 21-7 lead, leading to McCullough smoking  a ball to the hardwood and making the set 22-7, somewhat icing the cake on what ended up being a 25-8 victory in the second set. 

As the Brave fans looked on from the stands, the players gathered in the huddle and patted each other on the back or hugged. One more set win, and they would be moving on to the second round.

Not only did Talawanda emerge back onto the court with that understanding, but they did so while leaving no doubt.

The Brave took a 2-1 lead through three points, and a four-point run put them up 6-1 early. Hughes came back with a point, Talawanda responded with one of their own and the Big Red came back with two more.

The score now 7-4, Talawanda sent the gas pedal through the floorboard. 

Sophomore outside hitter Bella Cobb took the ball to serve after the Brave made the set 8-4 in their favor, and she took full advantage of the opportunity.

Talawanda proceeded to go on their biggest run of the night. The Brave amassed 13 straight points, including five aces from Cobb, to make the score 21-4. 

Aces (and, ultimately, forcing the Big Red to make mistakes) was a theme of the night for Talawanda. Senior captain and libero Stella Gerke finished the season with 61 aces herself, and tonight was no different, as she held steady when called upon to serve and tallied a handful of aces herself. 

The mindset for Gerke and the other servers was about playing with no fear.

“I think that we were just less afraid to make mistakes,” Gerke said. “We were being more aggressive in general with everything, so I think that helped a lot.” 

Hughes scored two straight points to make the score 21-6, but a four-point run from the Brave, capped off with a McCullough kill, ended the match in less than an hour’s time. 

“I think they came out ready to play in the first round,” Assistant Coach Greg Leadbetter said. “You can’t take any team lightly, even though it’s the first round, but I think they came out with a determination to win. They took it to them.”

While the scoreboard’s tilt in one direction was the obvious point of emphasis for those in the stands and following along via the internet, the focus for Talawanda wasn’t necessarily on anything other than supporting each other. 

After every kill, dig, set or block, the Princeton High School gym filled with noise from the visitor’s side of the court, no matter the score. 

“I think our energy was great,” Patton said. “We were very energetic the whole time, and that always helps whenever you’re playing a match like this. You can either go up and down, or you can play to a level, and I don’t think we played to that level. I think we played above it, and that’s because of our energy. We just got so excited after we set someone, and they got an amazing kill or amazing dig.”

The postseason is a different beast, and while round one may have come easy, details will be all the more important when stronger competition rolls around. But the Brave volleyball team, specifically the seniors, are focused on playing to a standard no matter who stands across from them.

More importantly, the coaches and players are focused on taking care of each other, which Leadbetter said you can see on a daily basis. No matter the position or grade level, the highs and lows of the season – one that featured both a winning and losing streak early on – brought the team together, and a postseason environment is where that can thrive.

“You can see when they get a point that they all come together,” Leadbetter said. “They’re clapping and high-fiving each other. But that’s really what it’s all about. You can do all this stuff during the regular season, but the postseason is when it counts. We talk about it all the time that the team that comes together the most when the postseason happens, they’re going to take it all the way.”

The Brave volleyball team will continue its postseason journey at 6 p.m. on Oct. 27 back at Princeton High School to take on the No. 2 seed Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy.