New Knoxville wins first outright MAC title in program history.
New Knoxville knocks off Marion Local to claim first outright MAC crown
MARIA STEIN — Back in August, Rangers coach Meg Lageman was confident in her girls that they could win the Midwest Athletic Conference despite all of the tough schedule that was ahead of them. And on Thursday, her girls made history. Now only did the Rangers win the Midwest Athletic Conference after beating top-ranked New Bremen on Tuesday, the Rangers made sure not to share that distinction with anyone else.
With just dropping one set on the entire MAC season, New Knoxville culminated their domination of the most dominating volleyball conferences in the state with a 25-19, 25-21, 23-25, 25-20 win against Marion Local on Thursday.
“It is just so amazing with just six players and to win it that way is super special and it is something that we are all going to look back on when we are
80,” an emotional Lageman said. “This is forever. This is something we will remember and we can always look at that banner and the younger kids can look at that banner and remember how special it was for it to be the first time ever.”
Playing as the underdog for many years, the Rangers (19-0, 9-0 MAC) are now the alpha dog of the MAC for the first time since 2005 — the last time the program won a conference title — and the first time ever winning the conference outright.
“It is so awesome to see all of the work that we have put through from when we have been in little fall ball from Midwest volleyball to now,” Rangers senior Morgan Leffel said. “Seeing this all come together as a team — and seeing Gretchen get hurt we came together and decided that we wanted to do this for Gretchen and do it for a teammate who could not be out there.”
The team’s goal coming into the season was to win the MAC, something Lageman believed her team could do back in August.
Aside from those team goals were individual goals — which the girls pointed out following their win against Fort Loramie.
On Thursday, Leffel said her personal goal for the season was to remain positive.
“Even when I didn’t feel good with all of my health problems,” [the senior was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes following last basketball season]. My teammates have been really helpful and that as my main goal — put everything and put it all on my team when things weren’t going the best,” Leffel said.
“I can’t physically give them what I want to be able to give them so mentally I just gave them my positivity,” Gretchen Dwenger added as the senior tore her ACL halfway through the season.
What makes this season remarkable is how the Rangers not only dominated the MAC but also the rest of their schedule.
New Knoxville enters the postseason undefeated, has lost just three sets this season and has played and beaten 10 state-ranked teams — as well as beating five straight state-ranked teams to conclude the regular season.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Lageman said as she thinks back on the season. “But it is all just hard work. They live and breathe volleyball and you can tell. They have that instinct on the court. They want to win and they live in the moment.”
The Rangers broke a 4-4 tie in the opening set with Avery Henschen serving five straight points, which included a pair of blocks from Carsyn Henschen and a Melisa Waterman kill to take a 9-4 lead. Marion Local never pulled within fewer than three points as the Rangers took a 1-0 set lead.
In that set, Carsyn recorded four blocks as the junior also led the team with 15 kills.
“We blocked so much better tonight,” Lageman said. “Against New Bremen, we didn’t block so well so that was something I wanted to improve on tonight. We wanted to get touches on those hits to slow it down for our defense and Carsyn did really good with that.
“Carsyn is our go-to hitter and we can count on her to put it away.”
The Flyers (18-4, 6-3) trailed 16-15 but New Knoxville pulled away in the second set with Waterman serving three straight points, including an ace and Henschen kill to push the lead to 20-15. Marion Local pulled to within three at 22-19, but Avery and Carsyn both recorded kills and the Rangers took set 2 after Nicole Franck’s serve went out of bounds.
New Knoxville broke a 10-10 tie in the third set with Avery serving four straight points to lead 14-10 and eventually led 23-20 as they looked to finish the Flyers off.
But Marion Local kept the game alive with a tip at the net to give Lydia Griesdorn the serve as the Flyers’ senior served four straight points, including an ace, to hand the Rangers their first conference set defeat.
“Marion Local served very well at us and we struggled a little bit with it but we just have to make those adjustments quicker,” Lageman said. “And in a couple of my timeouts, I just told the girls to ‘relax’ when I thought we were getting tense and getting nervous.
“I think the biggest thing with that is just to relax and just play Rangers volleyball.”
Leffel said toward the end of the third set, she felt the team tense up and began to play shy, but she added that going into the fourth set, she said the girls felt that they had nothing to lose.
“We’ve got to go out there and give it our best,” Leffel said. “We have to give it all for our town, all the people that have been here supporting us. Going into the fourth set, I felt more confident than any other set because I felt like we came together.”
Tied at 8-8 in the fourth set, Waterman gave the Rangers the breathing room they needed by serving two straight points, including an ace and Carsyn produced a pair of kills to get the serve and add a point with Waterman
serving to lead 11-8.
Marion Local never tied after that, falling behind by as much as 22-17 followed Carsyn’s tip at the net before Leffel ended the night by serving the final two points.
Following Carsyn’s 15 kills, Leffel produced 12 kills. Haley Fledderjohann recorded 12 digs and Ellie Gabel collected 44 assists.
Lageman said the girls will enjoy the program’s first outright title before turning their attention to the postseason where the Rangers will have a first-game bye in the sectional semifinal round and await the winner between Arlington and Waynesfield-Goshen.
In the meantime, she and her girls are going to savor this moment — a moment where they made history.
“It’s a new season,” she said. “We had a great season but we’ll have to put it in the past because it’s a new season.
“Everything can happen. Whether it’s a team who is a complete underdog, they can upset the other team and I think they’ve seen that and they realize that so they don’t take anybody lightly. But I think just coming into practice with whoever we have that next day, whether it is MAC or not — that is our focus. We scout them and our entire practice is about that team and I think that is how we keep the focus. All Classified Ads must be Pre-Paid on Personal and Commercial Ads unless
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