Monroeville coach Snook gets 300th win, Eagles advance to district final

WILLARD — Monroeville coach Kendra Snook had much bigger things on her mind. The Eagles were facing a scrappy Buckeye Central team, but a big plateau awaited if successful. Second-seeded Monroeville took care of business, topping the fourth-seeded Buckettes, 25-19, 25-20, 25-25, in a Division IV district semifinal at Willard High School on Tuesday, giving Snook her 300th career win -- all at Monroeville. "I've had a lot of phenomenal athletes that have done it all at Monroeville," Snook said. "For the last 14 years, it has been pretty exciting. I saw a lot of alumni in the stands tonight and it's always good to see them. I've been very fortunate to have a lot of great players and a lot of good families." With the win, the Eagles improve to 20-4 and advanced to the district championship match Thursday against Seneca East (20-4) back at Willard. The Tigers topped Monroeville in four sets in a non-league match on Aug. 29 in Monroeville. "I thought the kids came out really quick to start and we had that nice lead," Snook said. "I thought Buckeye started to make adjustments... I don't think any lead at this point of the season is ever a comfortable lead. The message to my kids was to play the next ball." Against BC (12-12), the Eagles got off to a fast start. After the Buckettes took the first point, Monroeville responded with the next eight, including three kills by Maddie Daniel. Buckeye Central drew to within 20-16 on a kill by Kimmy Biglin, but never any closer. A kill by Madison Reiber and ace by Taryn Tyler started a string of three straight points. A hitting error and rotation error on the Buckettes gave Monroeville the first set. "They were more aggressive," BC coach Missy McDougal said. "We started out slow, which was the one thing I said we couldn't do. It's tough to recover. Maddie Daniel had some monster swings tonight. We tried to get some blocks." Set 2 was much closer and wasn't decided until the Eagles put a run together in the back half of the set. Monroeville led 4-1 and 6-4 only to see Buckeye Central respond and take leads of 10-9 and 12-11. But, with the set knotted at 15, the Eagles took over. Daniel smacked back-to-back kills before an ace by Madi Clark and block and kill from Daniel ballooned the margin to 20-15. Mia McDougal smacked a block for BC, but Monroeville kept going, as Daniel bludgeoned another kill and Ady Adams smacked one herself. Two errors by Buckeye Central and a kill by Adams gave the Eagles a stranglehold on the match. "We have some big hitters and they dug a lot of balls and made us work for every single point," Snook said. "Part of the big thing we talked to our kids about was being patient. We're fortunate to have really good defense, so our hitters are used to having to go up against those great defensive players in practice." Set 3 was close again before Monroeville pulled away late. The Buckettes had a 10-8 lead after consecutive errors by the Eagles, but Monroeville won the next seven points -- including two huge kills by Daniel and Reiber each -- to seize a 15-10 advantage. From there, the Eagles won points in bunches to put the match away. "A lot of times, she remind me of our other hitters we've had in the past," said Snook of Daniel, who added 10 digs, three blocks and two aces. "She does something that we look at each other and wonder how she's doing it. Our answer now is she's good. She's really good. She's the leader." Reiber added seven kills, Adams tallied six kills, White had 28 digs and Clark had 34 assists, 11 digs, four kills and three aces. The three aces by Clark gives her 79 for the season, breaking the school record for aces in a season.