The Cardinal Huskies’ girls’ volleyball team’s quest to return to the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division VII district championship match is off to a good start as they rebounded from a slow start to oust Northeastern Athletic Conference foe Bloomfield 21-25, 25-14, 25-13, 25-13 in the OHSAA Division VII Northeast 1 sectional championship last Thursday evening in Middlefield.
“It is certainly one of our goals each year to win the league and to make the regional tournament,” said Coach Michael Chaffee. “I think they are obtainable, but those are the goals that we set out so if we play well, those are things we can accomplish.”
If Cardinal (19-4, 16-1) defeats NAC Stars Division foe Badger in the OHSAA Division VII Northeast 1 district semifinal on Tuesday, it will have a chance to advance to the regional tournament by beating either Cornerstone Christian or NAC foe Matthews in the district title match at Grand Valley High School on Thursday evening at 7 p.m.
“It has only happened three times in the same year that a Cardinal team won the district and won the league in the same year,” noted the third-year coach. “Two years ago, we won the district, last year we won the league so it has been a goal from the start that we do both this year so that is one of our driving forces.”
On Thursday, the Huskies returned to the court after a long hiatus after concluding their regular season and securing a share of the NAC Stars Division title in the process.
According to Chaffee, Cardinal’s first set was filled with numerous errors, as Bloomfield maintained the lead for almost the entire the opening set, eventually earning a 25-21 victory.
“Our biggest challenge was that we didn’t have a very good first set,” he acknowledged. “I think we had 15 errors in that set. Bloomfield was playing well, they were keeping the ball in play, they were passing well, and they were serving well and we were struggling.”
Although it was a poor start to the match, Chaffee said that the Huskies did not show signs of panic.
He added that the team has played with a sense of urgency since the beginning of the season when Cardinal suffered its first league loss since joining the NAC, which meant the team had to be nearly perfect in the rest of its conference matches to stay in contention for the league banner.
“We have been playing with no margin of error in the league since the second week, so there was a lot of pressure on us knowing that two losses were going to eliminate us from repeating as NAC Stars Division champions,” he said. “One of our strengths is that we are usually very consistent and last night was just an anomaly in the first set.”
He credited Cardinal for having the poise to adjust on the fly during matches.
“Our kids are good at knowing what is going on and what needs fixed and how to fix it,” he said. “It is not in our group; we are not yellers and screamers.”
Cardinal responded by taking a commanding 15-5 advantage in the second set, and cruised to a 25-14 victory, evening the match at 1-1.
Chaffee said that the Huskies experienced another strong start in the third set, but Bloomfield stayed within striking distance, trimming the lead to four points at one point. But Cardinal closed out the third set by winning 25-13 and repeated its strong starts from the last two sets in the fourth one, claiming a 25-13 victory to finish the match and advance to the district semifinal match for the third straight season.
After cleaning up the unforced errors, Chaffee highlighted the Huskies’ serving and receiving game as a key element that turned the tide in their favor.
“Our hitting percentage went way up,” he said. “We went negative in the first game; we were just not in any groove. It was not a single thing, so we just did not settle in right away.”
With Cardinal’s first postseason victory secured, Chaffee said that the Huskies are eager to become the fourth volleyball team in school history to be league and district champions, something that was in their grasp last year but fell short of achieving both as they were ousted in the OHSAA Division VI district semifinal.
