ELYRIA — Just about the time everyone was settling in for a competitive volleyball match Tuesday at Elyria Catholic, Lake Catholic sophomore Audry Lucha decided to spoil the fun.
Lucha served 10 straight points to start the second game and Elyria Catholic never recovered as the Lady Cougars swept the North Coast League match 25-22, 25-15 and 25-9. Lake Catholic improved to 8-2, 7-1 in the league, while the Panthers fell to 8-5 and 4-4.
Elyria Catholic played volley-to-volley the first game and led 13-12 on senior Katie Wetzel’s service ace before falling behind. But the Panthers were still within striking distance after a four-point rally cut Lake Catholic’s lead to 24-21.
The Panthers got the ball to its junior setter — Theresa Krosse — with consistency, and Krosse managed to find her hitters with good sets. Senior Megan Hanson and junior Zoe Zwegat each had huge kills that put EC in the lead early.
However, after EC challenged with its late run, Lake Catholic closed out the game and never looked back.
“I thought we’d give (the Cougars) a run for their money for Games 2, 3 and 4,” EC coach Kim Watson said. “But that’s not what happened.”
Lucha’s service was the difference to start Game 2 — she had five aces in her 10-point run. Finally, a serving error gave EC a sideout, but the Panthers never bounced back. The closest EC got was 19-14, but Lucha returned to the service line to get two more quick points and the Panthers were only able to add one point from there.
The Panthers never really got into an offense and played both the second and third games on their heels and rarely had opportunities to attack.
“We try to score points when we serve,” Lake Catholic coach Rich Severino said. “We really serve aggressive. It’s really helped us this year. We’ve beaten teams just serving aggressive.”
“I think our confidence level just plummeted in that second game,” Watson said. “We never regained it. It’s something we need to work on because I think in terms of skill level and the talent we have on our team, it’s unbelievable. It’s just executing it during a game.”
The third game was nearly the same. Lake Catholic scored the first four points and after EC closed to 9-6 off a pair of block kills by Erin Kretovics, the Cougars scored the next dozen points to take a commanding 21-6 advantage. This time it was Julianne O’Donnell doing the damage at the service line with four aces.
“I thought after that first game, it was going to be a match,” Severino said. “I don’t know what happened in the second game. I’m still trying to figure it out. We got on a little run and they just folded. That first game could have gone either way.”
Lake Catholic not only served well, but played solid defense. EC was hard-pressed to find open spots on Lake’s side of the net.
“That’s our strength,” Severino said. “We’re not real big so we have to play defense”.
“I think a lot of it was mistakes we made on our side of the net,” Watson said. “Hitting the ball in the net, letting the ball drop between two players. It’s more of a mental communication process.
“(The Cougars) had a great defense. Lake Catholic is a fantastic team. They’ve always been a great team, but I think it came down to us executing on our side of the net. We didn’t do that.”
Zwegat and Kretovics each had three block kills for EC. Hanson led the attack with four kills. Krosse had 13 assists — most of them coming in the first game. Breanna Roldan had 13 digs.
Contact Tim Gebhardt at 329-7135
or ctsports@chroniclet.com. 

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