Columbus East and Roncalli have met on the volleyball court twice this season, and both times, they’ve gone the distance.
The Class 4A No. 8 Olympians won Round 1, and on Thursday night, the 4A No. 6 Royals took Round 2 with a 25-18, 21-25, 26-24, 16-25, 16-14 victory. Round 3 could come in the semistate.
East (21-4) twice battled back from one-set deficits to tie the match. The Olympians jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the fifth and deciding set, but Roncalli rallied to take an 11-10 lead.
A kill by Saige Stahl and an ace by Gabby Dean briefly gave the lead back to East, and a block by Libby Dippold tied it at 14-14. But the Royals scored the next two points to close it out.
“We’re right there with them,” East coach Ellyn McIntosh said. “The fifth set, we blew a 7-3 lead. We were just not playing precise, just not playing clean enough to finish out the match.”
Dean recorded 14 kills and two solo and four assist blocks, and Cadence Gilley had 24 digs and four aces to lead the Olympians. Saige Stahl pounded 14 kills, and Katy Jordan notched 4 assists.
Also for East, Reece Whitehead tallied 12 kills, one assist block and 10 digs; Libby Dippold added nine kills and one solo and three assist blocks and Stahl had one solo and three assist blocks. Jordan added 13 digs, Chloe Gilley contributed 11 dogs and one ace, Kenzie Foster had nine digs and Dean served two aces.
“I was proud of the way the girls fought back, but there’s definitely some room for improvement,” McIntosh said. “It’s good to see this going into sectional week, seeing where we can improve against better teams in the state. I think with a couple tweaks this next week, we’re going into sectional week looking pretty good.”
