Girls volleyball: Elyria Catholic ties Padua atop NCC with three-set win

PARMA — For nearly a month, Elyria Catholic had Oct. 7 circled on the calendar. When the rematch arrived with the last team to hand them a loss, the Panthers took full advantage of the opportunity against state-ranked Padua. Padua scored 12 of the match's first 15 points, but the Panthers responded with strong net play and earned a straight-sets victory, 25-20, 25-17, 25-22, Tuesday night to put themselves in position for at least a share of the North Coast Conference championship with a win over Beaumont on Thursday. "It means everything," Elyria Catholic coach Laurie Cogan said. "I told them, 'We're coming in here in second place. If we lose, we'll finish in second place, so this is not a life-and-death match. However, if we win this match, we're now tied for first place.' "I told them, 'In terms of this conference in the sport of volleyball, this might be one of the toughest conferences in the state of Ohio, and to be a champion in this conference, you have no idea what that means.' We were really motivated to come in here. To think we could take a piece of the conference championship, it means everything to us." Padua (14-7, 9-2) started the first set on serve, won the first five points and built a 12-3 lead when junior Ali Bradford served an ace. The Panthers (17-2, 9-2) answered in impressive fashion by winning 12 of the next 14 points to take their first lead, 15-14, and worked their way to the set victory. During the first set, Elyria Catholic freshman outside hitter Mollie Mulgrew registered six kills, which helped offset the seven put up by Padua junior Sophia Sidon. "I tried to step up and show up to prove that we are the better team," Mulgrew said. "I just tried to put on my game face as best as I could." Mulgrew posted another seven kills in the second set and finished with a team-best 17. "In Set 2, Mollie put on a clinic," Cogan said. "They had no answer for her, defensively. We made a couple adjustments when their middle hit, but I thought my defense was spectacular. "The gym has a very low ceiling. We talked about adjusting and the kids just responded. Every time we had a timeout, whether it was ours or theirs, they responded to everything we talked about in the timeout. I give them credit. They listened. They executed. They wanted this win more than anything." The Panthers twice surrendered four-point leads and trailed 22-21 late in the third set. But they got a kill from junior Ella Feskanich and a four-hit violation on Padua to retake the lead. An Ari Dimacchia kill and Feskanich ace closed out sweep. "Ella normally does not serve," Cogan said. "I told her to stay on the court. I thought, 'We're going to give them a little different look at a different server, somebody they have not seen for almost three sets.' She serves different than Bree (Bodde) and I thought, 'We'll just see how far Ella can take us.' Of course, she served an ace there at the end to give us point 25, but she also played some outstanding defense at left back, which is a position she never plays. "She just went out there, and you would've thought she trained in left back. She doesn't. Any practice she gets, she gets at middle back, but I wasn't changing middle back. I didn't want to go through that with Ella. I thought, 'We're just going to throw you in left back and wish for the best.' She did an outstanding job, defensively, and then to serve that ace for point 25 was just off the charts." In addition to pulling into a first-place tie atop the conference, Tuesday's win over the Bruins served as revenge after Padua swept Elyria Catholic on its home floor, Sept. 11. "I think this was a really big win for us," Dimacchia said. "We were talking about how this may be one of the biggest games of our season."