GIRARD — The Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin volleyball team celebrated a Division III district championship on Oct. 24. Well, sorta. When the final point of the night hit the floor in a 25-19, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19 win over Kenston in Girard, there weren’t a lot of calories burned in a post-match celebration. That tends to happen when your team has set the bar a lot higher than a district championship. The Girard Division III District Champion NDCL Lions. (John Kampf – The News-Herald) NDCL (18-7) played its 16th straight district final on Oct. 24 and won its sixth in a row at the expense of the Bombers. After finishing as a regional runner-up last season, the Lions set the bar high this season to surpass last year’s finish. Hence the lack of a raucous celebration in Trumbull County. “That’s one of the goals, to get to regionals and then to the state finals,” said junior Abby Tolin. “I think we have all the tools. It’s just a matter of finishing it out.” How confident was Coach Tom Ray in this team making a deep tournament run this year? He picked his spot on the tournament bracket based on the potential regional matchups and state semifinal matchups. His sixth-seeded Lions backed up his plan with a district semifinal win over the fourth-seeded Bombers. “They’re ready,” Ray said. “We’re looking to make a late-season push.” NDCL looked as if it were going to breeze through the evening in three quick sets by taking the first two. But Kenston wasn’t about to go away quietly. After NDCL took a 19-17 lead in the third set, Kenston battled back with the help of an Emily Grubich ace serve for a 21-20 lead. It was a 23-23 game when NDCL made a few hitting errors that gave the Bombers the win and forced a fourth set. NDCL led at the start of the third, 6-1, but Kenston toughed out a third-set win. “Our girls are going to fight to the end, no matter what,” Coach Christian Jolley said. It was a 7-7 score in the fourth when Tolin rattled off six points in a row. Two came on ace serves and a pair came of kills by freshman phenom Frankie Brkic. “I would say I’m a pretty confident server,” said Tolin of her serves that opened a 13-7 lead. Ray explained further, noting, “Abby is usually a little chaotic serving. She usually throws a 100-MPH fastball. We wanted her to have a 50-60 percent serve, let the ball move a lot and keep Kenston out of an actual offensive rotation they wanted to get into.” Kenston never recovered. Even though the Bombers cut the gap to 17-14, NDCL closed out the match, with Tora Forte, Ava Hills and Grace Gaeta registering kills down the stretch. On the final point, Brkic came flying in from the back row to end the match with a kill. “I really wanted that point,” she said. NDCL was led by Brkic’s 17 kills and 19 digs. McKenna Morrison had eight kills and 12 digs, while Tolin had 22 digs. Grace Daniels (21) led in assists. Despite the loss, Jolley noted the strong season his program had. He said, “You can’t give a team like NDCL a six-point cushion” as the Bombers did in the fourth set. “We’re obviously losing some awesome seniors,” he said. “We return a solid core and we’ve got good young kids coming up. The future of Kenston volleyball is bright.” So is that of NDCL, which moves on to face the winner of 15th-seeded CVCA and 17th-seeded Chardon in a regional semifinal next week. “We’re looking forward to more wins,” Brkic said, “taking everything set by set and game by game, and staying classy.” Kenston volleyball captains accept the district runner-up trophy in Girard on Oct. 24. (John Kampf – The News-Herald) The score NDCL 3, Kenston 1