Willard falls in 4 sets to defending district champ Galion

ATTICA — Willard scratched out a win in the first set and had Galion on the ropes in the second, but the Crimson Flashes couldn't close. Galion, the defending district champion, rallied for a 22-25, 25-23, 25-15, 25-20 win over the Crimson Flashes in a Division III district semifinal at Seneca East High School. After a first-set win, Willard led 19-18 in the second on a Makinley Schaffer block and tied it at 23-23 on a big Kelsey Lykins kill. But top-seeded Galion answered with its two hammers as Hailey Young and Ashley Dyer recorded kills for a 25-23 win that sent Galion on its way. "Game 1 we had everything going our way," Willard coach Ashley Bond said. "Game 2, we did until the end. Didn't get a call. Once we didn't get that call everything shifted the other way. In volleyball, once you lose momentum you lose everything. We couldn't swing it back after that Game 2 loss." In the third set, Lykins dominated at the net early for the third-seeded Flashes, but Galion answered and rolled to a 25-15 win. Willard's last push in the fourth set came when freshman Leah Weiss scored her fifth ace of the match to bring the Flashes to within 23-18. But Galion finished with a kill by Dyer, who has more than 300 this season. "Her ball was dying," Bond said of Weiss. "It seemed like seven or eight times she was going to serve it in the net and it just trickled past. For her to be in that situation as a freshman says a lot about her and what her future is going to be." Lykins finished with 15 kills while Schaffer had nine. Camryn Wiers added eight kills for Willard, which finished the season 16-8. Willard lost in four sets to Galion earlier this season, but actually scored more points (94-93) in the match. Galion had an answer on the tournament stage. "In Game 1 we had to expend so much energy. In Game 1 and Game 2, it's like no matter what, every point was a tradeoff," Bond said. "You looked up at the scoreboard and it was tied, or we were down one or up one. "In Game 3, they went on a little run and it changed our mental approach and changed everything." Galion (22-3) has won seven straight matches and will try to defeat Huron in a district final for the second straight year Wednesday back at Seneca East.