HUDSON — Mentor was plagued by slow starts in its district final against Strongsville on Oct. 24. The Cardinals overcame it twice but also dropped a pair of sets as the game went to the fifth. Strongsville worked up a 9-5 lead in the frame, but Mentor rallied. However, the Mustangs matched Mentor and held a 13-12 lead. Then Kayden McKinney took over. The junior recorded the final three points for Mentor to take a 3-2 victory and advance to a regional semifinals against St. Joseph Academy or Stow on Oct. 31 at Barberton. “I trusted my teammates,” McKinney said. “My setters were going to get me the ball, I know where to put the ball down. The whole time, my teammates were telling me where to put the ball, especially Mel (Garrett). Coach (Sam Weaver) told me out of that timeout, just swing and have fun.” Mentor goes back to regionals for the second season in a row and the first time it’s been back-to-back bids since 2009. The Cardinals came into the matchup knowing it was going to be a different tone from their GCC matches. Strongsville built early leads and found ways to make them stick. Weaver said they had to find a spark somewhere in all five sets but that they all needed to be different. “We knew it was going to be harder, we said it all the way leading into the match,” Weaver said. “They came out swinging and had the we-want-to-win mentality while we were playing with the we-don’t-want-to-lose side. That was the battle. We turned it on at the right times in the sets but we came out timid and they wanted it more than we did.” The first set featured an even distribution of attacks as McKinney, Garrett, Anna Cassidy and Claire Kovell had three kills apiece. Garrett said Mentor can’t just rely on their pins, they need to have a balance. Whether it’s the back row or the middle, it needs to be in an equal manner. “It was very important to keep the blockers on their toes,” Garrett said. “We can’t let them isolate on just one person. That’s what really helped us early in the game, they didn’t know who was getting the ball and that’s what helped us come back in the fifth set.” McKinney had a game-high 24 kills followed by Garrett’s 19. Cassidy had 11 with seven blocks and Kovell had nine. But Strongsville had a strong attacker on its side of the floor. Payton Beard had 24 kills as well and helped push the Mustangs’ attack to set wins. Despite the challenge of stopping a strong hitter, Weaver had the same message for the team, no matter if they were down by seven points or up one. “Every time we took a timeout for the game, the message was don’t play for yourself, play for the team,” McKinney said. “It was about the other 16 players on the court. We don’t want our seniors to leave yet, it means a lot more to us to go back-to-back.” Mentor had a strong rally in the third set as it held Strongsville to four points after a timeout to go up 2-1. But they couldn’t carry the momentum to the fourth set to close out the match. Strongsville took the fourth set and went up 9-5 in the fifth, forcing Mentor to take both of its timeouts. But that’s when the run for Mentor started. Smart serves, strong receiving and devastating swings inched the deficit closer and closer. With the Cardinals down 13-12, Strongsville called its final timeout. That’s when McKinney took control. After she forced a free ball off of her block, she sent a tip just over the front row to tie the match. Then she walked the right side of the out-of-bounds line to give Mentor the lead and an angled block that went just over a diving dig attempt by Brooke Balough finished the rally. “We had to go back to what we were comfortable with,” Weaver said. “That’s the story of some of our losses. We have to trust the kids in these situations. Kayden is the kid that you want up in that situation. She knew that once she rotated to the front row, we were going to be OK. And when we added Mel to the fornt row, that confidence just grew even more.” Strongsville also had Anna Painter finished with 14 kills and Balogh had nine. Mentor celebrates with the district championship trophy Oct. 24. (Ben Hercik – For The News-Herald) The score Mentor 3, Strongsville 2