ELYRIA — Elyria Catholic and Columbia had one thing in common in losing Division III district semifinals Tuesday night: They both showed a lot of heart.

The Panthers dropped a five-game match to Independence, while the Raiders lost in four to defending district champion Villa Angela-St. Joseph.

EC (16-9) played the match without its freshman setter Catherine O’Shaughnessy, but nearly made up for her absence after dropping the first two games, 25-19 and 25-14. The Panthers made the Lady Devils earn their way to Thursday’s district final by winning games three and four, 26-24 and 25-21, before running out of gas and dropping the fifth game, 15-5.

“Rachel (Pronesti) stepped up to a very difficult situation,” EC coach Kim Walton said. “She did a fantastic job. When you get used to practicing with one setter, that’s where your momentum goes. “I think if we’d have had a little bit more time to practice with Rachel, it would have been perfect.”

Pronesti, a valuable player off the bench, had to take over the setting duties due to O’Shaughnessy’s on-going bout with the flu. O’Shaughnessy missed the tournament opener but played brilliantly in last week’s sectional final against Hillsdale. Pronesti filled in admirably, but it left the Panther rotation out of sync and Independence’s outside and middle attackers took advantage.

EC fell behind quickly in the first two games — 15-5 in Game 1 and 13-4 in Game 2 — and never could make up the difference. Finally in Game 3, the Panthers seemed to find their game in building a 14-6 cushion before hanging on to win after the Devils had tied the game at 24.

Elyria Catholic forced the fifth game by breaking a 19-all tie with four straight points for a 23-19 lead and eventually won the game on an Independence hitting error and Sara Kaminski’s kill that beat a Blue Devil block attempt.

However, Independence (15-10) jumped in front 4-1 in the fifth game and ran off six straight points later in the game to build an insurmountable 13-4 lead. Middle hitter Sarah Budzowski and outside hitters Natalie Letostak, Alexa DeFranco and Stephanie Rizzardi — all seniors — took turns scoring at the net. EC senior Zoe Zwegat had several big kills, but it just wasn’t enough.

Columbia (17-8) battled the Lady Vikings (19-6) all night. VASJ built a 20-9 lead in the first game and won rather easily behind the inside work of its two big hitters — juniors Abbie Fabo and Shayla Long. In the second game, the Vikings fell behind 13-5 before bouncing back to tie the game at 15. Three kills by Long off great feeds from setter Kim Rossman finished the task.

The Raiders weren’t to be denied in the third game. Led by Courtney Trout, Brooke Wenzel, Alayna Shawver and Kelsey Kelly at the net along with setter Emily Nagle, Columbia forced VASJ to a fourth game and nearly took the match to a fifth. The Raiders rallied within 20-19 in the fourth game before VASJ put the game out of reach.

“We did all we could,” Columbia coach Wendy Owens said. “We don’t have quite as much depth in the hitting area but I thought all our hitters did well. We blocked well and pulled up some of their hits to play the ball and get some points. We couldn’t always find the holes in their floor. They play great defense and are a very disciplined team.”

Contact Tim Gebhardt at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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