Hillsdale holds off Waynedale, win tight five-setter for first district title in 50 years
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GRAFTON − Gong into Wednesday's OHSAA Division VI district final with conference foe Waynedale, Hillsdale head coach Matti Willeke wanted to see her team take a more relaxed approach.
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"In the past, we've gotten real tight," she said. "I feel like we took a little bit of the approach of just play your game. We took a little bit of a lighter approach. Not putting so much pressure on ourselves."
That more lighthearted approach paid dividends for Hillsdale (19-5) as they held off Waynedale (17-8) for a five-set, razor-close victory (25-23, 25-22, 17-25, 13-25, 18-16) to claim the school's first volleyball district title since 1976.
The thing with Hillsdale and Waynedale is that both schools are used to playing closely-contested matches against each other. Wednesday's district final marked the fourth straight match − dating back to last season − that Waynedale and Hillsdale have played a five-setter.
Waynedale defeated Hillsdale in last season's district final in five sets. Hillsdale won its first meeting over Waynedale at home in the regular season. Waynedale returned the favor in the team's second meeting at home. Then on Wednesday, Hillsdale won another tight match going the distance.
Both teams more than anticipated that.
"Yes, but we won those first two sets and I was like, 'We're going to get it,'" said Willeke. "Because of how tight the first two sets were, we knew we were going to get a good match."
"Very much," said Waynedale head coach John Finn. "I would have been surprised if it didn't go five."
"Oh yeah," said Hillsdale senior outside/middle hitter Jillian Cowger. "We're both evenly matched teams. The first two matches we played, we played them closely. We both have our own strengths."
The Falcons went up two sets early, but the Golden Bears rallied and were pretty strong in winning the third and fourth sets to send it to a fifth. Even though they loss a two sets to none lead and Waynedale had built more momentum heading into the final set, Cowger still felt confident that her team had more than enough to pull it out.
"We felt we were comfortable enough to comeback," she said. "We really didn't want to go to a fifth set. We wanted to get our first pass up. Work around their block because they had a real good block and minimize unforced errors."
"First touches, serve and serve receive," Willeke said, on the main focal points for her team in the fifth set. "We really needed to take care of that. We wanted to be in position to make a key attack."
"We battled. We always say if we get to set five anything can happen. You never want to go down 0-2," said Finn, on his team going down two sets to zero. "Hillsdale's a very good team. We did this to them last year. Fair play to them."
It's been 50 years since Hillsdale has won a volleyball district title, and it couldn't be a more worthwhile feeling for the Falcons.
"All season we talked about competing. Just shows how hard we fought for this and how bad we wanted it," said Willeke.
"We came in as freshmen. They won two games the year before us. It's just been working hard every year," Cowger said. "Our goal this year was to make it past districts and make it further than last year. All the hard work really paid off."
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This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Hillsdale holds off Waynedale, win tight five-setter for first district title in 50 years