The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Lancers expect to build on final four season
FAIRBORN >> Junior Emmy Klika needed one word to encapsulate what she and her Gilmour teammates felt when they walked off the floor at Wright State on Nov. 7.
“Terrible.”
After the Lancers led the match and were eight points away from advancing to the Division II state championship game, Bishop Fenwick roared back to claim a fiveset victory and send Gilmour back to Gates Mills.
The Lancers didn’t like the nagging pain of defeat. They won’t forget it soon and, similar to the way they use a 2017 district final loss to Beaumont as motivation, Gilmour will be driven to rectify its season-ending result.
“We definitely didn’t go down without a fight,” Klika said. “I’m just really proud of the way that everyone played and everyone’s been playing throughout this entire season, specifically the playoffs.”
When 2020 season’s process begins, the Lancers will start from a position of strength. Gilmour will return all of its varsity players save one, defensive specialist Katelyn Hanchin.
Hanchin, who missed her junior year with a torn ACL, was the lone member of the team who traveled to Wright State with Gilmour before. Three years ago, the Lancers advanced to the state final four and lost to Miami East in the D-III tournament.
Now, after helping Gilmour advance to its first D-II final four, Hanchin sees similarities that transcend her state teams.
“I feel like one thing we have in common is our fight,” Hanchin said. “All of us go out every day and put everything out on the court. We did the same tonight, it’s no different. Going forward, I feel like they’re all going to keep the same team unity we had this year, which was so crucial and got us so far.”
Gilmour finished 21-7, winners of the Gates Mills
District and Stow Regional tournament. Klika and Brinn MacLellan return as the team’s captains, alongside setter Ava Nestor, middle Caroline Rarick and right side Jocelyn Carter — all juniors.
Middle Anna Rarick and defensive specialists Rylyn Anderson and Laney Klika stepped into coach Danny Coughlin’s rotation as freshmen, and became valuable contributors.
Gilmour will also return its best player, who played the best match of her career on her highest-profile high school stage to-date. Sophomore Kathryn Randorf hammered out 20 kills against Bishop Fenwick and registered a match-best seven blocks.
When the Lancers needed a key swing or stuff at the net, Randorf delivered.
The outside hitter finished the season averaging 4.1 kills per set, while Randorf’s teammates watched her start to harness her limitless talent.
“This year, she absolutely unleashed herself and has come out as a beast every single night,” MacLellan said. “We could not be where we are without her. We couldn’t be where we are without anyone but Kathryn’s been a main part of our team, especially tonight. She probably hit one thousand.”
Gilmour advanced a step further than it did in 2018, when the Lancers fell to Lake Catholic in three sets in the Stow Regional final.
As they seek to take an additional step in 2020, Coughlin understands they have a useful bit of experience — sets played on the Nutter Center’s floor.
“It’s cliched but you learn with losses,” Coughlin said. “These girls are going to hold this loss near and dear, they’re going to understand these little lessons they learned going through the game with the ball dropping, the setters having a rough time getting the ball. With as youthful as we are, I’m expecting two to three more trips down here.”