EATON TWP. — Aleecia Sunagel might have spoken too soon.
“Third time’s the charm,” the Amherst senior said. “That’s the way I see it.”
What she saw was a third match between the Comets and Olmsted Falls, this time for the Division I district volleyball championship. The latter hadn’t stamped its ticket to the title match at the time Sunagel spoke, but her prediction came true.
Olmsted Falls, the No. 1 seed and the second-ranked Division I team in Ohio, beat Medina, 25-18, 25-17, 25-13, less than two hours after Amherst defeated Elyria, 25-17, 24-26, 25-20, 25-14, in Tuesday’s semifinals.
Amherst (17-6), the defending champion, and Olmsted Falls (24-0) play Thursday night at 6:30 for the right to advance to the Norwalk Regional.
“It was a big win,” Amherst coach Laurie Cogan said. “Anytime an Amherst team can get a win from Elyria, it’s a big thing.”
Sunagel and Amherst’s other outside hitter, sophomore Deme Morales, proved too potent for the Pioneers. Morales had 20 kills and Sunagel added 18. Abby Burgdorf added nine kills, five in Game 4.
“I was very impressed with them,” Cogan said of her outsides. “Aleecia is strong and hits a very heavy ball, and Deme is just Deme. She’s tough to contain. Abby was tonight, too. When you have that kind of production from three hitters you’ll win a lot of matches.”
“They came out on fire, and they have a lot of firepower,” Elyria coach Jodie Johnson said of Amherst. “Morales and Sunagel are amazing hitters. We had trouble keeping them at bay. Plus, there were too many bad serves and bad serves received. The scores could have been closer.”
Amherst had no unforced errors in Game 4.
“We had two evenly matched teams,” Cogan said. “It was going to come down to who made the most mistakes. Elyria did. We executed at a higher level.”
Amherst setter Lauren Percival was 112-of-112 with 41 assists. Ashley Aponte, the Comets’ libero, had 22 digs and Percival had 15.
Kristen Boros led Elyria (17-7) with 13 kills. Brigette Jones and Amanda Medvetz had eight kills each.
The Comets broke away from a 9-8 lead in Game 1 with a 9-1 run to pretty much put the game away. The second game was close the whole way. A kill by Morales tied the score for the last time at 24 before an Amherst hitting error and a kill from Medvetz gave Elyria its victory.
Amherst opened a 16-8 lead in Game 3 and was ahead 23-14 before the Pioneers made it close. Morales’ kill gave the Comets the victory. In Game 4, Amherst broke a 3-3 tie with a 10-3 run and was never in trouble the rest of the way.
Lauren Whyte and Brittany Snider, Olmsted Falls’ outside hitters, led the way for the Bulldogs with 18 and 17 kills, respectively.
“We could only go to the outside because Medina took the middle away from us,” Falls coach Dawn Moses said. “Medina came in with a great game plan. Their middles (middle hitters) were all over our middles. We didn’t pass well, so it made it tough for our middles.”   
Olmsted Falls had a surprisingly difficult time with Medina (13-12), which had pulled off two upsets in the sectional to get to the district semifinals. The Bees outscored Falls 9-1 to take a 13-11 lead in the opening game before the Bulldogs went on an 8-2 run to regain control.    
Falls snapped a 14-14 tie with eight straight points, with Stephanie Strodtbeck serving, in Game 2. The Bulldogs were ahead all the way in the third game, opening leads of 5-1 and 13-6 and never allowing Medina to get close. Snider had eight of her kills in the closer and Strodtbeck served two aces in a four-point run that gave Falls a 24-12 lead.
Contact Steve Byrne at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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