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STEUBENVILLE -- The Catholic Central volleyball team bounced back from a disappointing second game to up a big win against rival Madonna.
The Crusaders won the first game, and were on the verge of winning the second one before the Blue Dons stormed back to win it and even the match. Catholic Central, however, regrouped and won the next two games to win the match, 25-13, 23-25, 25-14, 25-11, Tuesday night inside the Mickey Barber Gymnasium.
"It was not one of our better outings," Catholic Central (3-1) head coach Sherri Barber said. "We tend to do really well in the first set. We are 3-1. We come out and do well in the first set. In the second set, we tend to let up.
"We have four starters back who are juniors, and we have three seniors. We are fairly young and inexperienced. Typically, we are good at that net.
"They (Madonna) were scrappy. They were scrappy, and they played well."
The Blue Dons suffered some self-inflicted wounds in the loss to the Crusaders.
"We're improving," Madonna (0-4) head coach Mike Orecchio said. "We beat ourselves today. Catholic Central is a good team, but we beat ourselves today.
"Every game we get better and better. We have played some big teams. We will be ready.
"We get to play Catholic Central again. We get to play them at our place."
The Blue-and-Gold led Game 1 14-7 before they pulled away and won it, 25-13, to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The visitors came out strong to start the second game as they built an 11-7 lead forcing the hosts to call a timeout. The girls from Jefferson County were able to regroup as they bounced back and took an 18-17 lead.
Volleyball is a game of momentum, and this one was as the girls from Hancock County collected the next three points to take a 20-18 lead. Catholic Central, however, responded again and scored the next five points to take a 23-20 lead putting them two points away from winning the game and taking a 2-0 lead in the match.
The girls in blue, however, had different plans. Madonna bounced back and scored the next five points to win the game, 25-23, and to even the match at 1-all.
"I told them we practiced all week, we're better than this and we need to pull together," Orecchio said about what he told his team to inspire their late run. "Our libero – Gigi Orecchio – played really well along with our hitters and our setters.
"Catholic Central is a good team. We will come back. We will have a nice season. We are looking forward to Wood County on Saturday."
Once the Blue Dons got the momentum late in Game 2, the Crusaders were unable to take in from them.
"We got real quiet," Barber said. "Once one girl gets down, the whole team lets down. We couldn't come back.
"We worried about calls. You can't be worried about calls. It is what it is."
Catholic Central came right back in the third game.
The Crusaders raced out to a 9-4 advantage forcing the Blue Dons to call timeout. The lead grew to 13-4 before Madonna was able to score. Later, the home team built a 21-14 advantage forcing the Blue Dons to once again call timeout.
The Crusaders scored the final four points of the game to win the game and to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
It was more of the same in Game 4.
Catholic Central built an 11-5 lead resulting in a Madonna timeout, however, the Blue Dons were unable to turn the tide. The Crusaders increased their advantage to 17-5, and they went to win the game, 25-11, to win the match, 3-1.
"Typically, we serve well," Barber said. "Usually, we are really good servers, but at times we just served it to serve it. We did not try to serve it to where there were holes. We served well in the third and fourth sets. You don't want to serve just to get it over the net. We did get some points off our serve."
Madonna played solid defense in the match.
"We were able to dig out a lot of their spikes," Coach Orecchio said. "We just beat ourselves. We beat ourselves.
"We were in the right place for their tips. They tipped it, and we were able to pick it up. We just could not finish. We could not finish our spikes, and we could not finish our serves."
Individually for Catholic Central, Ava Marcino contributed 26 points, eight assists, eight kills, seven aces and three blocks, Lilly Blazano tallied 23 points, 15 assists, six aces, six kills and one block and Anna Arai added 19 points, 13 kills, three aces and one block.
Also for the victors, Ella Maragos collected 10 points, one assist, one kill and one block, Emily Walker recorded eight points, one ace and one kill and Natalie Cherepko produced seven points, seven kills, two blocks and one ace.
Finally, Talia Marcino chipped in with three points, and Nici Krupp delivered one point.
Individually for Madonna, Rylee Birkhimer recorded three digs, one assist, two kills and one block, Madi Owens delivered three digs, three kills, one ace and one block and Chloe Orecchio collected five kills, two assists, one ace and one dig.
Also for the girls in blue, Jules Thomshack tallied two blocks, one kill and one dig, Mia Pietranton produced eights assists and three digs and Danyka DeCaria delivered one assist and one dig.
Finally, Gigi Orecchio contributed nine digs, and Myah Ferguson finished with one kill.
"We made a couple of changes to our lineup in the second game," Coach Orecchio said. "Our chemistry came together. If you do not trust the other players, you are not going to win. You have to trust the other players to pick it up when you are not there."
Catholic Central is scheduled to play Weir Thursday night at home. The JV match is set to start at 5:30 p.m.
"Weir has a nice team," Barber said. "Fran (Capaldi) does a nice job with them. I coached Fran. I don't like to coach against my former players, but there are a few of them out there. Monday, we play Big Red, and Logan (Colabella) is another one I coached."
Madonna is slated to play Wood County Christian at noon Saturday on Joanna Bernabei-McNamee Court inside the Bill Barrett Gymnasium.
The Crusaders and Blue Dons are scheduled to play again Sept. 19 at Madonna.