ARCANUM—The Ansonia Lady Tigers made a good showing in OHSAA DVI volleyball tournament play but fell short in a 3-0 loss to the Anna Lady Rockets.
Playing their final career Lady Tigers volleyball game were seniors No. 4 Malarie Butts, No. 8 Lauren Warner, No. 12 Gabby Leeper, No. 14 Aleah Shilt, and No. 15 Ava Erwin.
“Our senior class is young with varsity experience this year just from graduating a big class last year,” Ansonia coach Lydia Schlarman said of her seniors. “They stepped up well. I love all those girls so much that it is hard to watch them walk off that court today. We are definitely going to miss them.”
The Lady Rockets jumped out to an 18-9 first-set lead, bringing a timeout from the Ansonia bench. They earned a double-digit 19-9 advantage on their way to a 25-13 win over the Lady Tigers.
“I think it was nerves,” Coach Schlarman said of the Lady Tigers’ slow start. “Even though we came out a little bit slow, our fundamentals were there.”
Ansonia quickly fell behind in set No. 2, trailing 14-2 before answering with a 12-8 scoring run to close within 22-14. Anna scored the final three points for a 25-14 win to go up 2-0.
“Our play is like riding a rollercoaster,” said Schlarman. “We have been working a lot on trying to finish a game. We struggled a lot with that this year, so this week in practice, we worked on that a lot. I wish it could have come together a little bit sooner.”
The Lady Tigers played even to open third-set play, with the set tied at 2-2, 3-3, 5-5. Ansonia earned their lone lead of the night at 4-3 in the final set.
Ansonia continued to battle strong, keeping the set close, trailing by single points at 10-9, 11-10, and 12-11. The Lady Rockets put the game away, taking advantage of a 13-2 run to advance in tournament play with a 25-13 win.
“We were very scrappy tonight,” Coach Schlarman stated. “I give it to Anna. They have some good hitters we are not used to seeing in our conference. We had to adjust to that on the fly, not being put in a situation this year to have a hitter hitting at us like they did. Our block adjusted very well, something we must work on for next year.”
Looking to the 2025 season, Coach Schlarman noted the team loses its main setter to graduation.
“That is something we will have to adjust to very quickly next year, finding that new set of roles,” she concluded.
