GALION — The Galion Lady Tigers volleyball team began their postseason tournament run on Saturday morning on their home floor as they hosted the No. 11 seeded Upper Sandusky Lady Rams in a Division III, Attica District sectional finals matchup.
Galion, the No. 1 seed in the bracket, had some hiccups along the way but escaped with their match and set winning streaks still in tact, defeating Upper in three sets; 25-13, 25-21, 25-17. The Tigers extended their aforementioned streaks to 19 consecutive matches and 54 set victories in a row. While also earning the sectional championship and a district semifinals berth, Galion improved their season record to 22-1.
In the first set, like the two to follow, the Lady Rams would get on the scoreboard first, triggering a back in forth contest that saw seven ties and three lead changes with the Galion squad taking the lead at 11-10 and not looking back. From that point in the contest, the Tigers would go on to outscore the Rams 14-3, capped off by a tapper over the net from Jaden Ivy to secure the set victory.
Throughout the season, Galion had some minor issues in the second set, eventually pulling away to keep their winning streak alive. Saturday would prove to be no exception to that as Upper scored first, eventually pulling the score to 3-0 before Taylor Keeran threw down a kill to put the Lady Tigers on the board. Kayla Hardy continued to serve the ball well and would help the home team take their first lead of the second at 4-3. The Rams refused to go quietly though, regaining the lead at 6-5 following a pair of tied scores at 4-4 and 5-5. Upper would remain in the lead despite six more ties before Galion took back the lead at 14-13. The two squads would continue to jostle back and forth again, including seven more tied scores in the contest to go along with one more lead change as Galion took the lead at 16-15 and never fully surrendered it. Following a Kerrigan Myers block to put the Tigers up 23-21, Samantha Comer served up two consecutive aces to give the home team the set and put them up 2-0 in the match.
Upper Sandusky would continue to hustle and refuse to roll over in the third set, once again taking the lead to begin play with the help of continued serve reception errors by Galion. Keeping with the trend of the first two sets, the teams would find themselves tied up a few times within the first eight points but Keeran’s attacks at the net would prove to be too much for the Rams’ defense to take. Keeran would use her service skills to put the Lady Tigers up 9-8 via an ace and Galion would not look back from there en route to the 25-17 set victory, leading to the 3-0 match win.
As a team, Galion finished the day with 37 kills on 35 assists, recorded 36 digs and five blocks, all while serving the ball at a 64/73 clip, good for 42 points on nine total aces.
Comer contributed to every statistical category in the win on Saturday, recording 12 kills, seven digs, three blocks and an assist while posting a 13/14 serve mark for eight points on two aces. Hardy finished at 15/17 on her service attempts, tallying 10 points on four aces while also leading the way for the Lady Tigers with 33 assists and posting five digs.
Keeran would also crack double-digits in the kill category, netting 10 on the day to go along with a block, a dig and 10/11 serving for six points on an ace. Ivy served up five points and two aces on a 9/10 clip, tallied seven kills, nine digs and an assist to aide in the Galion victory.
Myers added six kills and two blocks at the net with Gillian Miller and Brooklyn Cosey added a kill each with Cosey blocking two attempts and Miller adding a block. Kate Schieber and Nicole Thomas served the ball well in Saturday’s match with Schieber finishing at 7/10 for seven points while earning two digs defensively. Thomas went 10/11 at the service line, gaining six points for her squad while saving 12 points thanks to 12 digs.
The Lady Tigers headed to Attica on Tuesday evening to compete in their district semifinals contest against the No. 4 seeded Willard Lady Crimson Flashes. Willard defeated No. 5 Western Reserve on Saturday in straight sets to set up their second meeting of the season with Galion. Galion defeated Willard on the road back on September 4 in three sets; 25-15, 25-21, 25-16. The winner of that district semifinals contest will move on to Thursday’s district championship game against either No. 2 Huron or No. 8 Milan Edison.
