MARION — No Whippets on the court Tuesday night at Pleasant were born the last time Shelby's volleyball team won a league championship. Heck, even the head coach was minus-3 when Shelby won the Northern Ohio League title in 1994.
"Thirty years, I wasn’t even born yet. I was born in ’97, so it’s a long time," Whippets head coach Katelyn Olewiler said.
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Tied with Pleasant and Highland at 11-2 in the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference, the match with the Spartans was a winner-takes-a-share of the conference after Highland knocked off Ontario to earn its 12th league crown in a row.
And it was Shelby who prevailed 3-1 against the Spartans, winning the match 25-17, 23-25, 25-22, 25-15.
"We have seven seniors on this team, and we have played together for like 10 years," Shelby setter Baylie Hoffbauer said. "We have so much chemistry together. Our juniors and sophomore Chloe (Mahek), we just all work together so well. It’s really nice to play with them."
Shelby is 18-3 overall and 12-2 in the MOAC. Since losing 3-1 at home to Pleasant on Sept. 12, the Whippets have been perfect in the league and have won 10 of their last 11 matches.
"They are a group that is never satisfied," Olewiler said. "They are always reaching for that next step and wanting to get better. They are absolutely relentless. We have an incredible group of seniors this year, and they have just been key leaders for us that we look up to."
How did Shelby pull it off on Tuesday?
First, the Whippets were ready to go from the jump.
"We lost a couple games at the beginning of the season that we wish we would have won," Hoffbauer said. "We circled this game on our calendar after losing to them the first time around. We knew what we had to do, and we came in here and did it."
Shelby forced Pleasant to play catchup on the scoreboard most of the night. Tied at 6-6 in the first set, the Whippets ripped off a five-point run and were never threatened the rest of the set. While the Whippets lost the second set, they led most of the way before the Spartans closed with a 5-0 run to even the match at 1-1.
In the third set, Pleasant led 13-9, but saw Shelby rally to take a 15-14 lead. It was still a 1-point match when the Whippets got back-to-back kills from Mahek to take a 2-1 lead in sets.
"We had a better game plan going in," Olewiler said when comparing their 3-1 win to their 3-1 loss to Pleasant a month earlier. "It’s not that we weren’t prepared the first time, but I think we found our weaknesses and strengths of what we need to do in order to capitalize against Pleasant."
When Shelby took command at 10-6 in the fourth set, it never wavered and cruised to the championship.
"Pleasant is a great team, a great team. If we can get them out of system, that’s our best bet. They have great hustle," Olewiler said. "We know we can put pressure on them from the service line, and that gets us a good start for our defense."
How about Pleasant?
Like Shelby, Pleasant was hot coming into the match, winning 12 in a row. In fact, the Spartans hasn't dropped a set since that 3-1 victory over the Whippets, making it a streak of 29 straight sets.
"We talked about how one game doesn’t define us and that we were in this position because we worked hard all year. They just came in better equipped to take the game," Pleasant coach Kory Ute said. "We were out of system a lot and looking confused. We looked like we didn’t think they were going to do that when we knew perfectly well they were going to come in ready to go. We didn’t adjust well in between sets.
"Hat’s off to them. They came in ready to go and not on their home court and played very well. They have strong hitters, and for some reason we just couldn’t close blocks through tonight."
The Spartans fall to 19-3 overall and end at 11-3 in the MOAC. They will now turn their attention to the postseason where they will begin Division VI tournament play with Grandview Heights coming to Pleasant Oct. 16 at 6 p.m.
"We’re going to take a day off tomorrow, and we’re going to come back and work even harder. It’s a group that wants to succeed and wants to go to that next step. To do that we have to shimmy a little bit and adjust in a few places to see if we can make that work," Ute said.
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This article originally appeared on Marion Star: 30 years in the making: Shelby earns its first volleyball league title in a generation
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