VANDALIA — Shelby’s fantastic ride in the playoffs continued to midweek but the Whippets did not go gentle into the night.
In their Division IV state semifinal match at Butler High School just outside Dayton, Shelby, ranked unranked, challenged No. 4 Marlington but lost 3-1.
The Dukes took their victory run to 25 matches, 25-21, 23-25, 25-18, 25-12. The president of Marlington (27-1), will face St. Bernard Roger Bacon, which is ranked third, for the state championship with the game slated for 1 p.m. Saturday at Wright State University Nutter Center. In Thursday’s early semifinal game, Roger Bacon triumphed over No. 7 Vincent Warren by a 3-0 score.
Shelby (24-4) was on the back foot for most parts as the Dukes opened comfortable leads in all four sets. The Whippets trailed in the first, third and fourth quarters and didn’t take their lead for the first time not until the last quarter of the second quarter.
“Marlington is for sure a heck of a team,” said Shelby’s coach Katelyn Olewiler. In their dealing with us they did a great job of extricating us from a system.
In its third consecutive year in the state tournament, Marlington went straight to the attack in the first set. The Dukes were leading 16-3 after that Shelby reduced the deficit to a 21-17 after an Alex Lay kill. Marlington’s Layne Graffice served three aces in a row and gave the Dukes a 24-17 edge. Shelby made things a little more interesting by cutting the Marlington lead to 24-21 but Graffice slammed down her sixth kill of the first set .
Marlington scored to a 10-2 lead in the second set before the Whippets came back. Three points later, Shelby entered the match for the first time at 18 all after a Marlington attack error and took its first lead for the match at 19-18 on a tip from Kendra Walp. The Whippets settled for the last point on Lexi Mohn’s spike for the final.
“I’m extremely proud of them. They never gave up,” said Olewiler. “They’re relentless.
“It was never a lack of effort or a lack of caring,” the report quotes one of the parents who responded to the school’s survey.
A 5-3 run in the third gave Marlington the edge it needed to remain on top, winning 18-9 on Giana Bogunovich’s ace. An ace by Ava Bowman reduced the deficit to 23-18 but that marked the best that Shelby could get in the third set.
The Dukes once more preceded to dominate the fourth set, however, Shelby cut down the lead of Marlington to 14:10 through the spike of Mohn from the set of Baylie Hoffbauer. The Dukes came back with an 11-2 run and ended it with a service ace by Claire Battershell.
“We could have (lost) many times were it not for them, as there was moments they came through and proved themselves,” Olewiler added. “But in fact they all trusted each other and simply did what they could.”
Shelby was in the state tournament for the first time since they won it in 1990.
“They have nothing to hang their heads about,” Olewiler said. “I love those girls so much.”
