Fort Loramie’s Victoria Mescher spikes as Emmanuel Christian Academy’s Bria Willetts defends on Wednesday during a Divison 7 sectional at Fairmont High School in Kettering.
Luke Gronneberg | Sidney Daily News
KETTERING – The Jackson Center Tigers knocked off the Botkins Trojans 3-0 in straight sets at Trent Arena on Wednesday in a Division VII district semifinal.
“There are still some things that we are working on consistently in practice,” Tigers head coach Kim Metz said. “We want to make sure that we are tapping everything that we can tap out of our athletes.”
Jackson Center took the first set 25-15, the second 25-12 and the third 25-11.
“Ball control is one of the biggest factors that we have,” Metz said. “I rely on everyone, whether they’re on the floor or on the bench because everyone is laying the groundwork for someone else to get better.”
Botkins entered the contest with the momentum of upsetting nine seed Southeastern last Saturday.
“We still have a young team,” Trojans head coach Sara Brown said. “We did many things right. We started with some adversity early on in the season. My only senior had an appendectomy three days into the season so a lot of our preseason was out of sorts.
“We really found ourselves this year, we had a lot of position changes and unknowns going into this season. We’re going to use this as momentum going into next year to get stronger, quicker and better. To say this season with 10 wins was an extreme success would be incorrect, but we’re heading in the right direction in a tough league.”
With Wednesday’s victory, the Tigers advance to a district final on Saturday and will face the winner of Thursday’s Lehman Catholic vs. Covington Buccaneers game.
Fort Loramie flies to district final
Fort Loramie volleyball beat Emmanuel Christian 3-0 in straight sets on Wednesday at Trent Arena in Kettering in a Division VII district semifinal matchup.
“They’re going to have a tough practice tomorrow,” Fort Loramie head coach John Rodgers said. “There’s a lot of little things that they’re not doing correctly right now, we have to clean that up before we move to the next round and they know it.”
Loramie started set one down 3-0 before catching stride and winning 25-16. It took set two 25-12 and finally set three 25-10.
“We play so much during the season going Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and then it slows down in the tournament,” Rodgers said. “It really wears on you. You can get out of rhythm. We’ll get back in rhythm, we did a little bit tonight but we have a long way to go.”
Fort Loramie advances to take on Newton Local on Saturday at 11 a.m. in a district final. Heading into the matchup, Loramie holds the advantage in kills, blocks and assists while Newton has more serving aces and digs.
Anna sweeps Ansonia
The Anna Rockets took down Ansonia in a Division VI district semifinal at Arcanum High School on Wednesday in straight sets.
Anna took the first set 25-13, the second 25-14 and the third 25-13.
Ava Reed led the Rockets in kills with nine, Izzy Jenkins led with 25 assists and Madison Mumaw notched a team best 17 digs.
Anna advances to a division final on Saturday where they take on the winner of Houston and Tri-Village on Thursday.
Raiders roll through Troy Christian
The Russia Raiders defeated the Troy Christian Eagles 3-0 on Wednesday in a Division VII district semifinal matchup at Trotwood High School.
Russia took the sets 25-11, 25-15 and 25-17 respectively and advanced to their ninth consecutive district final game on Saturday.
The Raiders will travel to Fairborn High School and take on the winner of New Miami vs. Middletown Christian which takes place on Thursday.
Reach assistant editor / sports writer Ryan Harless at 937-538-4651 or follow @RyanHarless_ on X (formerly Twitter).
