Lady Colts sweep past Fort Frye for D-III district title and return trip to regionals

SOUTH ZANESVILLE− Top-seeded Meadowbrook High's volleyball team accomplished quite a feat on Saturday with its three-set sweep over No. 8 seed Fort Frye in the Division III district championship match at Maysville High School.

The Lady Colts improved to a sparkling 23-2 record on the season with the victory by scores of 25-26, 25-11 and 25-16 to advance on to OHSAA regional tournament competition for an impressive third consecutive season under head coach Kelly Zehnder.

A proud Zehnder was quick to give her players, along with their parents and the Meadowbrook community all the credit for the impressive achievement.

"It's just a great feeling, it's all due to my girls. I'm just so proud of them," Zehnder explained. "I've been blessed with some incredible girls and phenomenal parents. I can't say enough about the Meadowbrook community in general. We have had some very good teams in football, basketball and volleyball the last few years. And the fans just show up every time."

"My girls get a lot of confidence from that, all the parents are here, really every one is here to support them," Zehnder added. "And that means the world to these girls. I mean as soon as the bus rolls in for a game, the parents roll in. Then Meadowbrook nation arrives. It's a community thing, not just a team thing. It takes a whole community to make something like this happen. And it's very special and we appreciate it greatly."

Despite being a decided underdog, the Lady Cadets showed up in the first set with a great deal of energy. And that's something Zehnder explained her team is used to dealing with.

Meadowbrook jumped out to a 7-4 lead with senior Ella Jefferis handling the work behind the service line, while senior All-Ohioan Camden Black and junior Taylor Sichina showed up at the net. Black and Sichinia each hammered down a pair of kills to help build the early lead.

But junior Kianna O'Brien sparked the Lady Cadets, reeling off five straight points to pull even at 13-13, and things got a little interesting.

Fort Frye would take its first lead at 15-14, and then extend the advantage out to 17-14 with back-to-back service points. The Lady Cadets would then keep the slight lead until a nifty touch kill perfectly placed into the back corner by Jefferis tied the set at 22-22.

Fort Frye answered with consecutive points to retake the lead at 24-22 to set up set point. But Jefferis would again prove effective with her serving touch with clutch consecutive winners for the 24-24 tie.

The two teams would tussle for control back and forth, with ties at 25-25 and finally 26-26 before the Lady Colts finally closed out the win.

Sophomore Madyson Long put a serve into the net to give Meadowbrook the 27-26 advantage, and then senior Kendyl Cannon served the game-winner with Black putting down the kill for the hard-fought 28-26 victory.

"Fort Frye tested our mental fortitude in that first set," Zehnder said. "We all kind of giggled after that set, because we have sort of struggled closing games in practices for a year now. But I just kept doin it, and doing it and they would run. I can't tell you how many times we did the last two point drill or last five point drill against our JV team. And today all that work paid dividends in a big way."

"We know we have a big bullseye on our back," Zehnder offered. "We know that we are going to get everyone's best shot. They just keep chipping away, and didn't let anything get them down when Fort Frye held the lead for a while. We just stayed mentally strong and focused, and found a way to finish it off."

Meadowbrook had little trouble in the next two sets, maintaining the upper hand throughout both to finish off the sweep.

Black tallied a game-high 23 points, with 21 kills, seven digs with a block, while Sichina added 10 points eight kills, one dig and a pair of blocks. Jefferis finished with seven points, four kills, a team-high 33 assists, and six digs, with senor Megan Devillez chipping in with nine points, six kills, two digs and three blocks.

Launder also collected nine points, five kills, with 13 digs and two blocks, Cannon contributed nine points, one kill, four digs and three blocks for the district champion Lady Colts. Seniors Mylee Arnold and Mila Norman each picked up seven digs in the match.

"Karly Launder just did a great job in the back row today against two very good hitters they had," Zehnder explained "We don't get all our kills at the net, if Karly doesn't dig those out, and Ella provides the set. So those three together made it work. I thought our entire back row, played about as well as you can today."

"To make it to the regionals in back-to-back-to back years says something about our girls, and about their parents," Zehnder explained. "I mean they have raised not only great athletes, but they have also raised really great, gritty kids as well."

NEXT − Meadowbrook will now travel to Logan High School on Thursday at 6 p.m. where they will take on the winner between South Webster and Seaman North Adams out of the Waverly district tournament in a Division III regional semi-final match-up.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Lady Colts sweep past Fort Frye for D-III district title and return trip to regionals