Old Fort snaps Colonel Crawford's 11-win streak in five-set thriller

PHOTOS: Old Fort at Colonel Crawford volleyball

NORTH ROBINSON - There were several instances in Monday night's five-set thriller against Old Fort where Colonel Crawford coach Jaime Valentine wanted to call a timeout.

But instead, she opted to trust her girls on the court to treat adversity as a learning experience.

"Philosophy-wise, that's one thing I feel strongly about," Valentine said. "I have to allow them to work through when they're in panic mode and learn how to calm it down again. There were moments I could've called a timeout, and would have if I had more than two, but I had to let them work through some of those jitters and learn to work with each other on the court in those moments.

"Because in the end, they're who's going to be on the court — not me — they have to learn to work together and work through those moments ... for the most part, they figured it out."

It was a lesson at the "school of hard knocks" as the state-ranked Eagles — 13th in Division VI by the Ohio High School Volleyball Coaches Association — saw their 11-game win streak come to an end in a 3-2 (11-25, 25-23, 25-15, 23-25, 15-10) loss to the Stockaders in a Northern 10 cross-division clash.

"We knew coming into tonight that it was gonna be a tough match," Valentine said. "And honestly, I would love to play those kinds of matches every single night. It's so competitive and it allows the girls to learn how to work through some of those nervous moments ... we had some plays that were unlucky there in certain circumstances, but that's how it rolls."

It looked as if Colonel Crawford would be well on its way to adding another W to the streak after a dominating performance in the opening set holding an Old Fort team — ranked 11th in Division VII by the OHSVCA — to just 11 points.

But the Stockaders shrugged that off and won the next two sets in convincing fashion despite the Eagles making a late eight-point run in the second to pull within two. And Old Fort appeared to be primed to close out the match in the fourth taking a 23-15 lead before Colonel Crawford's Reese Redman took over serving and proceeded to spark a 10-0 run to close out and send it into the fifth.

"I think it should have been a four-set match, but I'm glad we pulled it out with the way it started," Old Fort coach Erin Rau said. "That's a good team, to not have your best night and still come out with a win (is big)."

It was big considering Alaina Parr opened the fifth set with three consecutive aces for the Eagles forcing Rau into a timeout not long after trailing 6-3. From that point on, it was all Old Fort as the visitors closed out on a 12-4 run to steal away the final set capped off with an ace.

"Two top 15 teams ... that's probably how it should look with scores and everything," Rau said. "I was glad after the first set that we snapped out of it because sometimes you don't know ... that can set the tone, and it didn't for us."

It was the Stockaders' third match to go five sets in the last 10 days, twice against league opponents as they currently sit third in the West behind Calvert and Mohawk; Colonel Crawford is tied for first in the East with Buckeye Central.

"I'm very happy that we came to the N10 ... most nights it's a tough game, I like that," Rau said. "You have to show up every night and that's goig to help us even more for tournaments."

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