Huron dominates district final

HURON — Winning a district volleyball championship is normally a big challenge. Huron made it look easy, posting a 25-5, 25-14, 25-12 victory over Eastwood to claim a Division III district crown Wednesday night at Huron High School. "It's a funny game," said Tigers coach Don Wood. "We could play a team 10 times and this might happen once, but the other times it will be tight and could go either way. This was just one of those nights where things were going well for us. "It was one of those nights where everything bounced our way. You don't get them too often so we rode the flow." Huron, now 21-2 and ranked No. 2 in the state, advances to the regional tournament and will play at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Millbury Lake High School against either Defiance Tinora or Paulding. "It's always a goal to get to the regional," Wood said. "Once you get there, anything can happen. We have a tough district, so to get out of that, we're going to enjoy it, go easy tomorrow and then start to prepare for whoever is on the other side." The Tigers started dominating Eastwood from the opening serve. Huron raced out to a 4-0 lead in the first game, then rode 10 straight service points from senior Alizia Lagando to a commanding 17-3 lead. Senior Abigail Miller was on the service line for the final five points with Eastwood hitting the ball out of bounds to close out the first game. Huron built a 20-8 lead in the second game when the Eagles mounted a rally to cut the deficit to 20-12. The Tigers regained the momentum, scoring five of the next seven points to go up two games to none in the match. The Eagles kept things close in the early part of the third game, trailing by a 6-5 margin until Huron took control with a 13-4 scoring spurt, led by seven straight service points from Lagando and three each from junior Rae Roldan and Miller. "We had goals of getting to the district championship, but we know who is in our district and we know Huron is in our district," said Eastwood coach Jeff Beck. "I've been around the game long enough to know what we were getting into coming to Huron because they're just a perennial powerhouse. "Everything they do, from the way they walk to the way they talk is very intimidating. They've built this culture and had it for a long time. It wasn't shocking to us. We knew we would see some amazing volleyball on the other side of the net and we did." Brenna Moenter led the Eagles (19-5) with six kills, while Anna Ramlow had 13 assists and Alivia Schroeder added 13 digs. Sheridan Schuerman chipped in seven assists. "Eastwood presents a lot of problems," Wood said. "We managed to have enough offense at the right times to keep them out of their flow. They were out of system a lot tonight because our kids were patient, they were attacking pretty well. The times they were in system, they got great swings and kills, but our kids have bought in and are really playing hard." Senior Makenna Schafer finished with 11 kills for the Tigers and senior Sophie Lee had seven. Lagando had six kills, 16 digs and was 18-of-18 serving with three aces and senior Claire Solberg had eight blocks. "She was seeing the approaches well, seeing the ball well," Wood said of Solberg. "She just set herself up nicely to make the play." Senior Georgi Moody was 14-of-14 serving with a pair of aces and added 28 assists, with junior Izzy Cozzie adding six kills and nine digs and senior Sofia Stefano ending with 12 digs. "This group, when they are disciplined and locked into a game, they can do a lot of great things," Wood said. "We've got those seven seniors all contributing with the underclassmen mixed in there. You can't replace that experience, it's just huge." GALLERY: [Album Placeholder (use source code to remove)]