Brock Netter, Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
LOGAN — As the final point hit the net and fell to the ground, Circleville coach Crystal Thornsley couldn’t help but to let the tears fall down her face.
After falling in last season’s district final, her Tigers had finally won the big one.
For the first time since 1984, the district championship plaque was coming to Circleville after the Tigers (19-6) handed Gallia Academy its first loss of the season with a straight-set 25-18, 25-17, 25-23 victory on Saturday.
“These girls have worked so hard. In their careers through volleyball, softball, basketball, they’ve been in five district championship games and came back with silver in all five trips,” Thornsley said. “They’ve had just one goal, and that was to get better every single day. From that point, whatever happened was going to happen, and there aren’t enough words to begin to describe how overwhelmingly proud and happy I am for these girls.”
CREDIT: Brock Netter/SOSA
41 years of second-place finishes, at best, all washed away in that moment.
Tears of joy, ear-to-ear smiles and a ticket punched to the Sweet 16.
“To be on this team is to love one another,” Circleville’s Claire Davis said. “We have so much fun all of the time, and I think it’s a big huge key to our success. We’ve been in a lot of district finals, but to finally win one and make school history, since it’s been over 40 years, feels incredible.”
Tied 6-6 following a block from Gallia Academy’s (24-1) Abigail Clark in the first set, the Tigers answered with a block from Drew Hoskins, followed by kills from Hoskins and Kayla Fleck to go ahead 9-6.
Circleville continued to maintain a two-to-three point lead until a kill from Aubree Frazier and a block from Clark brought the Blue Angels to within 18-17.
However, the Tigers had more gas in the tank as they ended the set on a 7-1 run behind Fleck, Maddie Blakeman and Addison Edgington to go ahead 1-0.
“Our adrenaline was really high, but so were our nerves when we took the floor,” Blakeman said. “However, we saw that we were able to get kills, our defense was playing really well and we were all connected on the floor, which made everything so much easier to just play the game and have fun doing it.”
After Edgington caught her rhythm towards the end of the first, she opened the second with a trio of kills that put the Tigers ahead 6-1. That lead only continued to grow, stretching to 15-7, following back-to-back aces from Blakeman.
PHOTOS: Images from Circleville’s district title win over Gallia Academy
Ally Thornsley later served an ace making it 18-8, and although Gallia cut it to 20-14, the hole was simply too deep to climb out of as the Tigers went up 2-0.
“Maddie is the glue that holds this team together. She’s the one who keeps everyone focused and going in practice,” Crystal Thornsley said. “There’s so many little things that no one realizes that we rely on her to do in volleyball, and the girls just know she’s going to be there every single time. She’s such a calming force and she played such a fantastic game for us.”
Gallia Academy jumped out to a 6-4 advantage to try and give itself some momentum in the thrid, but it was short-lived. Kills and blocks each from Hoskins and Ally Thornsley sparked an 8-1 run to put the Tigers ahead 12-7.
Still, the Blue Angels continued to show fight and scrap to climb back before back-to-back kills from Frazier and Aspen Barnes brought them to within 15-14.
Circleville knew Gallia had a lot of fight left after seeing the team climb out of a 2-0 hole in the district semifinal.
Trailing 21-17, following a block from Edgington, the Blue Angels made the hustle plays to narrow the gap to 21-20. Circleville, however, went back up 24-21 and had match-point ready.
GA got a pair of kills from Rylee Saunders and one from Barnes to come to within 24-23. But Gallia’s serve on the next point went straight into the net and sent Circleville’s crowd into a frenzy it had waited four decades to celebrate.
“There was a lot of reassurance in those final moments. We picked each other up and told ourselves that we weren’t going to let them come back,” Fleck said. “It felt so amazing seeing that ball hit the floor. We’ve worked our tails off for this and it means so much to us as seniors.”
Circleville now advances to a Division IV regional semifinal at 8 p.m. on Wednesday at Pickerington North High School against London, who beat Heath in five sets to advance.
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