Notre Dame’s season ends with district final loss to Trimble

Brock Netter, Staff Writer

Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.

CHILLICOTHE — The most unpredictable thing in volleyball is the one thing that doesn’t appear on a stat sheet — momentum. 

It comes and goes as it pleases and has a weird way of rewarding teams at the best of times or, in Notre Dame’s case on Saturday, at the most inopportune times. 

The Titans (21-5) found themselves on the wrong side of a momentum swing late in the second set, and never regained their footing afterwards, suffering a straight-set loss — 25-19, 28-26, 25-20 — to Trimble in a Division IV district final. 

“We did exactly what we planned for. We had energy, hit the ball well, had good serve receive, good passing and good kills, but the mental game failed us,” Notre Dame coach Katie Dettwiller said. “That’s hard to watch when you’ve seen how much work these girls have put in all season to get here and it just completely fails apart because we’re thinking too much, which led to doing things we’ve never done before.” 

The Titans started out nicely behind the duo of Bree Hicks and Gwen Sparks at the net, jumping out to a 6-5 lead in the first set. After a few ties and a couple of lead changes, the Titans went on a 4-0 run, capped by a kill from Hicks to go ahead 12-11. 

More deadlocks took place as both teams jockeyed for position down the stretch, but Trimble was able to get the upper hand following an ace from Kennedy Kittle to go up 19-18. From that point on, the Tomcats (23-4) fed the ball to Katelynn Coey and she came up with two kills, a block and an ace to help push them past the finish line first with a win. 

Notre Dame regrouped and came out firing, opening the second with the first five points before an ace from Hicks pushed the lead to 9-3. Trimble started to make its run, going on an 8-3 spree after back-to-back aces from Brianne Fraunfelter to trim the lead to 12-11.

PHOTOS: Images from Notre Dame’s district final loss to Trimble

The Titans put things into high gear behind Hicks and Maddie Entler to later control a 23-16 lead with all momentum on their side. 

Then something happened, and the wheels completely fell off the wagon. 

With a slight pulse, Trimble began to fight back behind Katelyn Sutton, Brandis Bickley and Jacie Orsbourne to piece together a 7-1 run to tie the set at 24-24. 

Coey later ripped a kill to put the Tomcats ahead 27-26, and Notre Dame committed an unforced error to help complete Trimble’s comeback and put the Tomcats ahead 2-0. 

“They started thinking that they all had to do everything to get those final two points instead of just trusting one another,” Dettwiller said. “Communication broke down, there was no talking on the floor and that’s going to be a thorn in your side when it comes to playing volleyball. You can’t lose your cohesiveness and togetherness in those moments.” 

Sparks led the early charge for the Titans with a series of kills and blocks in the third, helping them get ahead 8-2. Yet, the Tomcats set the ball towards Coey and the junior hitter led a 6-0 run to tie the set at 8-8. 

The Tomcats later took a lead and back-to-back aces from Orsboune put them ahead 13-10. Notre Dame fought back to take a 15-14 lead following a kill from Hicks, only for Trimble to later retake the advantage at 19-18 after a kill from Coey. 

That proved to be the final momentum swing of the night as Coey and Sutton racked up kills to seal the deal on a third straight district title for the Tomcats. 

Though the Titans’ season ended one game shorter than hoped for, it still continued a long standard of excellence by winning 21 games, the SOC I crown and a sectional title. 

“These are all standards at Notre Dame that I’m glad we were able to accomplish once again. It takes a lot of hard work and every game is a chance for us to improve ourselves,” Dettwiller said. “We always want to move on and do things we haven’t before, and these girls haven’t won a district title for themselves. That’s the goal next year, but we can’t look past what we were able to do this season.” 

Notre Dame says goodbye to five seniors in Libby Kelly, Kamryn Bradford, Mallory Boland, Brighton Riegle and Annie Dettwiller, who was the SOC I Player of the Year. 

“They understand what it means to play Notre Dame volleyball and they were all great leaders,” Katie Dettwiller said. “If any one of those seniors said that everyone was going to walk 10 miles, they were going to follow. They leave behind such big shoes to fill, not just as athletes, but as students in the school and we’ll miss them.”

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