Jackson tops Norwalk in finale

NORWALK — The brief stretch in some ways felt like a microcosm of the season. Facing a state-ranked Division I opponent, the Norwalk volleyball team was playing even with Massillon Jackson in Saturday afternoon's regular season finale. But instead, the Truckers came up just short in two of the three sets and fell to the Polar Bears by scores of 25-22, 27-25, and 25-15 at NHS. Jackson (16-5) finished ranked No. 7 in the final OHSVCA state coaches poll in Div. I, and are currently ranked No. 6 in the state by MaxPreps. Norwalk closed the regular season with a 10-12 record. "I think this team is capable of doing great things," Norwalk head coach Sarah Kipp said. "But in big moments, our youth and inexperience show a little too much, and that's the difference. "It feels like we've faced a lot of senior-heavy teams, and in those big moments, they have that big leadership, whereas we're just inexperienced in that area." After a competitive first set, it was the second set that got away from Norwalk. Leading 20-18, Sydney Moehman found the floor for a kill, then a hit attempt by Jackson hit the pole and fell out of bounds for a 22-18 Norwalk lead. Bella Hernandez then came up with a kill, and Jackson went into a timeout down 23-18. But out of the timeout, the Polar Bears put together a run of five consecutive points, capped by an ace to tie the set at 23. A kill from the left side then put Jackson ahead 24-23, though Norwalk avoided set point when the Bears served out of bounds. Jackson and Norwalk's Maddie Gamble then traded kills for a 25-25 tie. However, Norwalk hit a ball long and out of bounds, then Jackson closed out the 27-25 win with an ace to go up 2-0. "Like most volleyball matches, it comes down to who makes the least errors," Kipp said. "I think they just tightened their play and made fewer errors than what we did. "We struggled with that there, and again in the third set. Just too many errors." In the third set, Norwalk was again holding its own early with a 9-7 lead. But the Bears scored 13 of the next 16 points to take control with a 20-12 lead. With two seniors — Moehlman and Reagan Mooney — Norwalk closed the regular season with four straight losses and six of its last seven. "I think we've learned a lot of lessons this year," Kipp said. "Some were hard-to-learn lessons that you can't mess around with a big lead. You need to push and finish, and I'm seeing kids do those things." Moehlman finished with nine kills for Norwalk, while Hernandez had five and Gamble added four. Emily Tyler had 22 assists and eight digs, while Sawyer Wineman had 26 digs and was 10-for-10 serving with an ace. Also for Norwalk, Mooney was 7-for-8 serving with three aces, and Lola Schlotterer had 15 digs and served three aces. Kipp hopes that seeing a program like Jackson — which has won five straight district titles and reached a regional final in the state's biggest division — will help in what looks to be an even tournament matchup. Norwalk is the No. 3 seed in its district and takes on No. 4 Ontario (14-8) at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Lexington High School. The winner of the sectional title match advances to an Oct. 20 district semifinal in Willard. "We haven't seen Ontario yet, which is exciting," Kipp said. "They have a couple of big outside hitters that we'll work to try and contain, and we want to make their defense play."