Marietta’s Anna Ritter (right) gets a kill on teammates Reagan Karcher (10) and Adele McCombs (23) before getting a match-point assist from Ava Prim (1) during the Tigers’ sweep of Dover in the Division III district championship game. celebrating after his win Saturday afternoon at Logan’s Jim Myers Gym. (Photo: Jay W. Bennett)

LOGAN, Ohio – Ari Buckley (14), Anna Ritter (12) and Tori Dawson (11) scored double-digit kills Saturday afternoon here at Jim Myers Gymnasium as head man Ron Kidder’s Marietta High volleyball program made history at the school. they finished. It dispatched Dover 25-13, 25-20 and 25-18 to capture the Division III district title for the second straight season.

The Tigers, who improved to 23-2 and will now face Bishop Watterson in the Sweet 16 at Lakewood High School in Hebron on Thursday at 6 p.m., came out firing against head coach Beth Mathews’ Tornadoes.

The combination of Ritter and Dawson with Taylor Karcher, who had a match-high 41 assists at the net, gave the orange-black a quick 5-0 lead in the opening set after Dover called a timeout.

When Ritter moved to the back row, Buckley joined Dawson up front and maintained the lead as Dover trailed 13-3 at the second timeout. Karcher’s kill gave the Tigers a 20-8 lead. After a Ritter ace it was 24-11 and Buckley completed the set point before coming back from the attack.

“We were ready to play” He acknowledged Tiger libero Reagan Karcher, who finished the quad dig.

Marietta’s Ari Buckley finished with a game-high 14 kills to help the Tigers sweep Dover in the Ohio Division III district championship match on Saturday at Logan’s Jim Myers Gymnasium. (Photo: Jay W. Bennett)

“We were really excited to win the last game, so we really wanted to be back-to-back district champions, and I think we came to play today.”

Ritter, who had a game-high 21 digs, had a double-double along with Buckley and his 15 digs.

“That’s incredible” Ritter admitted, watching as Emma Middleton had eight kills with a baker’s dozen digs and Haley Wilkinson had a triple kill and 10 digs. “The other night at practice we were looking at the banners we had in the gym and the last district title won before last year was 1975.

“It was a huge success and we were really excited. I think we were really excited. “We knew it was going to take a lot of time because Dover was a very good team and we knew we had to come out strong and stay focused and I think we did that in the first set.”

The Tornadoes did not back down after the defeat in the opening set and quickly jumped to 4-0 in the second set when Lily Galbraith got to the service line. Alli Hupp also had an early score, as did Hailey Kuecher, who recorded a double block with setter Quincey Werntz.

Marietta head coach Ron Kidder (left) addresses his team during a timeout in the district final game against Dover on Saturday in Logan. (Photo: Jay W. Bennett)

Wilkinson’s ace followed with a four-point run to tie the score at seven. Although Wilkinson then made a serving error to make it 8-7 Dover, Dawson killed it with a shot down the line to put the Tigers ahead for good. After Buckley put down an ace, Dawson collected his second ace and the orange-black took an 18-11 lead.

Despite Caroline Hanner making a team-high dozen kills and Keucher’s double block on Dawson making the score 19-15, Dover could only close the score to 23-20 after consecutive aces from Chera Schmidt. Ritter gave MHS a 2-0 advantage in the best-of-five game after recording the final two drop snaps.

“We were there too” said coach Kidder. “I’ve been saying all season long that one day we’ll go out on the court and we’ll all play together. Today I told them after the first set it’s there. These girls have worked hard. They’re classy, ​​very classy, ​​and they keep playing and fighting. They’ve got goals. This is back to back for them.” district championships. These girls made history today, I’m so proud of them, I’m so proud of the girls and my coaches.

“Dover has a good team. It won’t get any easier, but we have a challenging schedule. The performance in the first set was very good. We made 3-4 blocks in the first set and closed it out. We knew we had to serve well, and we did that. It helps us when you take them out of what they want to do and they don’t get that good pass right away. It just helps.”

Hanner’s kill opened the final set and the Tigers fell behind 2-0 after Meghan Ravine’s attacking error on serve.

Marietta’s Haley Wilkinson hits the ball during Saturday’s district final game against Dover in Logan. (Photo: Jay W. Bennett)

Coach Mathews’ team took a 6-5 lead after Kuecher blocked Taylor Karcher’s tip and Jenna Molk’s kill tied it at 11 for the final time.

When Buckley’s dunks went unanswered, Marietta took the lead at 12-11. The Tigers took a 20-14 lead after Dover returned a poor serve and Middleton smashed the ball into the hard court.

“These are really hard to judge, but most of the time it’s fun if you just go up and swing fast.” Middleton said. “Those are the best kills in my opinion. “They are so much fun.”

Coach Kidder added Adele McCombs and Ava Prim to the squad late. Ritter helped the Tigers reach match point with four consecutive kills, the last coming on a Prim assist.

Middleton was unable to serve on match point when he entered the goal, but the attack ended with an error by Dover.

“The ball didn’t go our way today. We didn’t play our best.” said coach Mathews, who is missing defensive specialist Isabelle Stoldt for a wedding. “They played great. I won’t buy anything from them.

“They played a great game. We had a great season. I told the girls we’ve really grown a lot. I’m proud of our season. I’m proud of our team. I thought we competed very well today.”

Contact Jay Bennett at [email protected]