District volleyball: Elyria Catholic wins 14th straight, earns district title

ROCKY RIVER — Elyria Catholic performed up to a level worthy of its No. 2 seeding. The Panthers totally dominated No. 19 seed Girard 25-11, 25-10, 25-5 to win a Division V district title Thursday evening at Magnificat High School. Elyria Catholic improved to 22-2 with its 14th consecutive win. Girard, which upset No. 4 seed Columbiana on Wednesday at Elyria, ended its season 9-16. EC moves on to face No. 6 seed Burton Berkshire (23-2) in the regional semifinals Thursday at 7 p.m. at Medina High. Berkshire advanced with a 3-2 win over No. 10 seed Triway (18-7). The Panthers' win Thursday had a bit of a strange start. Girard jumped out to a 7-2 lead before Elyria Catholic got things revved up. Once the Panthers were rolling, they never looked back. They didn't miss a serve all night. Sophomore co-captain Ari Dimacchia led Elyria Catholic with 28 service points, including nine aces. She also had 12 digs, nine kills and two blocks. "Coach (Laurie Cogan) told us that we were starting off slow and just to play our game. She reminded us to play with energy, play with intensity and have fun," said Dimacchia. "That's just what we did. Once we got that first point back we started a run. We just let loose, had fun. That just took us all the way." Elyria Catholic caught and then passed Girard after tying it at 8 in the first set. From the deadlock the Panthers outscored Girard 17-3 to close out the first set. Dimacchia served 14 straight points in the second set to give Elyria Catholic a commanding 18-4 lead. She served 11 straight points in the third set to give EC a 23-4 advantage. Girard never strung together more than three points in either the second or third sets as it couldn't match the Panthers' intensity and consistency. "We've been stressing at practice to stay aggressive," said DiMacchia. "We just had so much energy. We just came prepared." It was a rematch of last year's regional semifinal at Berkshire, which EC also swept. "I think we were a little tight at the very beginning," Cogan said. "We have lofty goals for the season. We just needed to relax. When we called a timeout I just told them to relax and breathe, and they did that. They took the pressure off themselves. They're used to coming back." Freshman Mollie Mulgrew led Elyria Catholic with 13 kills. Junior co-captain Ella Feskanich also sparkled at the net with seven kills and two blocks. Freshman setter Emelia Hirsch had 31 assists. Freshman Ava Notarberardino had 11 digs, while junior Bree Bodde had 10 digs and three aces. "We can just count on everybody," said Feskanich. "You can't just stop one person. You have to stop the whole team. We have so many weapons at the net. We have so many people keeping our team afloat in the back row, too." The match was only tied once after the first set. That came at 3 early in the second set. Serving was the key. "That's something we talked about yesterday," said Cogan. "We knew we had to stop blowing three serves in a row, serving out of bounds or into the net. The key was to stay focused. "We played a solid game. Our defense was solid. Our hitters were on point tonight. Absolutely unstoppable. When our freshman setter (Hirsch) relaxed a little and brought her sets closer to the net, they had no answer for us." Contact Paul Heyse at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.