Pleasant and New Lexington volleyball will face off in the OHSAA state volleyball tournament.
The Spartans (23-1) take on the Panthers (25-2) at 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 8 at Butler High School in a Division V semifinal.
The winner will face either Mentor Lake Catholic or Cincinnati Summit Country Day in the championship match, set for 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9 at Nutter Center.
Below are play-by-play, stats and quotes from both teams:
Pleasant vs New Lexington volleyball: Postgame Quotes
New Lexington coach Alyssa Board on taking it to a fifth set: “We’ve been there too many times this year where we’ve gone 0-2. That’s probably our (fifth) game this year that we’ve gone to five sets. (What) we talked about coming out of that second set is that we’re going to keep learning and keep growing. If it takes us two sets to get down to learn and grow then, that’s what we’re going to do. They have bought into that all year of trusting in themselves. They did that in that situation. As scary as that may have seemed to the crowd, I think we were the most calm people on the floor, knowing we’ve been there and can handle that situation.”
New Lexington setter Jorja Burkhart on playing five sets: “We’ve been down 0-2. They are a very similar team to River View. We know we can come back right now and win. We knew they rode on their highs and lows. I feel like we were pretty composed.”
New Lexington outside hitter Chloe Dick on the comeback victory: “Nobody wants to be in a 2-0 position. We knew that we’ve been in that situation before. We were prepared by our conference play, and we knew we could come back and take that game. I’m very proud of the girls.”
New Lexington libero Gracie Newlon on the quick turnaround for the state title match at 1 p.m. at Wright State: “We saw that we can go down 0-2 and come back. No matter what, tomorrow we’re just going to remain confident and be able to come back from whatever they throw at us.”
Pleasant coach Kory Ute of what she told her team afterward: “We looked at the big picture first. There weren’t very many people who expected us to be back here and we were. We are still basically young, so we have another year to get better. We made mistakes at crucial times when we haven’t done that before, but we also played our heart out out there. Today they were a better team, and hat’s off to them about that.”
Pleasant libero Kam Roberts on why New Lex came back in the fourth and pulled away in the fifth: “I thik they had more energy than us. Obviously we’re trying to lift each other up, but they had more energy. They would get a point and would be all off the floor cheering, and we would get a point and (it was) yea! We would kind of just hope they would mess up so that we could get the ball back.”
Ute on going to a fifth set for the first time this season in the state semifinals: “I don’t think our energy was bad per se from being tired. I feel like we just started questioning ourselves as to what we can do and need to do. Volleyball is a mental game as much as it is a physical game. We’re going to work harder on that as well. It’s a great time to be in five, but it would be a lot better if we won it.”
Postgame Stats
New Lex ended with 55 kills, 12 aces, 4 solo blocks and 4 block assists. Chloe Dick had 15 kills, Ava Snedeker 13 kills and Lena Finck 12 kills. Six players had aces. Jorja Burkhart had 50 assists.
Kam Cocherl finished with 33 kills with Lexi Hutchinson added 8. Pleasant ended with 56 kills, 9 aces, 1 solo block and 16 block assists. Macy Hamper and Cassie Ice each had 22 assists. Kaivyn Cocherl led with 4 aces.
There were 26 ties and 12 lead changes.
New Lexington will face either three-time defending state champ Lake Catholic or Cincinnati Summit Country Day. Tis is New Lex’s first trip to the volleyball state tourney.
Set 5 (New Lex wins 15-11, takes match 3-2)
Here we go!
Lexi Hutchinson with back to back aces and Pleasant up 3-0. Pleasant hasn’t played in a fifth set all year. New Lex has been in four. Pleasant up 4-0 and New Lex calls time.
Snedeker block and kill ties it at 4-4 for New Lex.
New Lex surging in the long rallies, now up 8-5 and Pleasant calls timeout. Layla Baker with a kill for the last point.
NL up 10-7. Now Panthers lead 12-9 and have the serve.
Chloe Dick with a tip ends it. New Lex takes it 15-11.
Set 4 (New Lex wins 25-22, tied at 2-2)
Cocherl with 2 aces puts Pleasant up 7-4, then up 9-4 on her serves.
Faith McCants with a big block on Snedeker puts Pleasant up 12-7. A wide hits by NL forces them to take a timeout trailing 13-7.
Pleasant timeout after a long rally was ended at the net by Snedeker to cut PHS’s lead to 13-10. New Lex refuses to go away despite trailing this whole set.
Jorja Burkhart ties it with back to back aces 13-13.
Pleasant back on top 18-15 on the serving of Faith McCants.
New Lex calls timeout while behind 20-17 and Kam Cocherl getting the serve for Pleasant. Spartans 5 points from another trip to the state finals.
Now tied at 20-20. Chloe Dick with a kill off a block, and New Lex now up 21-20 and Pleasant calls timeout. New Lex trying to force a fifth set and prolong the match.
We’re going to a fifth set. New Lex completes the comeback with a Snedeker block for the winner 25-22.
Kam Cocherl now has 29 kills. Cassie Ice and Macy Hamper have 39 assists. Pleasnt has 14 blocks with Hutchinson and McCants with 4 reach. Chloe ZDick has 13 kills and Lena Finck has 10 kills. Jorja Burkhart with 41 assists. Six Pantehrs with aces
Set 3 (New Lex wins 25-19, Pleasant up 2-1)
Pleasant takes a 7-4 lead. They’ve got 10 blocks in this match to NL’s 1. Panthers take their first lead in this set, up 8-7.
New Lex now asserts itself and is up 14-10 after a Lena Finck block and Ava Snedeker play at the net.
New Lex up 19-17, was up by 4 points. Pleasant ties it at 19-19. Chloe Dick with an ace and Snedeker with another play at the net puts the Panthers up 22-19. Timeout Pleasant.
Chloe Dick was a serving demon down the stretch with a pair of aces and getting Pleasant out of system. New Lex wins it 25-19 to stave off elimination.
Cocherl is hitting .378 and has 24 kills. Hutchinson has 6 for PHS. Five players have combined for 12 blocks for Pleasant.
New Lex only had 9 kills in that set. Chloe Dick leads them with 8. They have 9 aces as a team.
Set 2 (Pleasant wins 25-22, up 2-0)
Here we go for set 2. New Lex gets an ace from Layla Baker and is up 5-1 to start. Timeout Spartans down 6-1. Pleasant all out of sorts and New Lexington serving hard from Gracie Newlon and Baker.
New Lex up 10-5. Behind Hutchinson’s serve, Pleasant cuts it to 10-8.
Tied at 14 after a pair of Kam Cocherl kills. Lexi Hutchinson kill down the line gives Pleasant it’s first lead in the second set at 15-14. Timeout Panthers.
Pleasant goes up 18-14 on Hamper’s serves.
Pleasant wins the second set 25-22 to take a 2-0 lead over New Lex. The Panthers were just .048 hitting while Pleasant was slightly better at .194. Both teams had 11 kills in that set. Cocherl had 8 in both sets and leads with 16 kills for the match. Lena Finck has 7 for NL.
Set 1 (Pleasant wins 25-23, up 1-0)
New Lex and Pleasant tied at 5-5 with New Lex leading most of that stint. New Lex now up 10-7.
New Lex 10 kills, Pleasant 5 and the Panthers are up 12-10.
Kam Cocherl with a kill puts Pleasant up 13-12.
Pleasant leads 20-18 after trailing most of the way. An ace by Kaivyn Cocherl and a kill by big sister Kam Cocherl were the last two points. New Lex has 15 kills and is somehow trailing.
New Lex fought back to take a 22-21 lead, but Pleasant responds to go up 24-22. Timeout New Lex.
Kam Cocherl kill ends it with a Pleasant 25-23 win to take a 1-0 lead over New Lex. Cocherl has 8 kills and Lexi Hutchinson has 3 for Pleasant. Chloe Dick leads New Lex with 5 of their 16 kills. Caroline Duper backs her with 4.
There were 8 ties and 5 lead changes.
Pre-match data
We are less than 20 minutes from today’s Division V state semifinal volleyball match with Pleasant and New Lexington playing at Vandalia Butler Fieldhouse. Both teams are going through their paces, warming up.
The winner plays tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Wright State’s Nutter Center against the winner of Mentor Lake Catholic vs. Cincinnati Summit Country Day. That match will follow the Pleasant-New Lex matchup at roughly 6 p.m. tonight. Lake Catholic is only 17-10, but it is the three-time defending state champ.
New Lex is making its first state appearance. Pleasant went last year in Division VI and was the state runner-up in their first trip.
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Updated final on Pleasant vs New Lexington live scores from OHSAA HS volleyball semifinal
Reporting by Rob McCurdy, Marion Star / Marion Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
