Mentor was in every set against Stow on April 5. But the Cardinals could never get over the hill. Good runs for the Bulldogs put them up, and they took a 3-0 win over the Cardinals. Mentor fell to 4-3. The Cardinals started the first set in a deficit, as Stow used the rotation with Luke Hoskinson on serve to push the lead up as Mentor was knocked out of rotation. Mentor rallied and came within three points of taking the lead. Sam Reynolds led the comeback attempt with four kills in the first set. But the Bulldogs used their hitting diversity to take the set. Five Stow hitters recorded at least one kill in the first set. A similar start occurred in the second set, as a rotation led by Sean Rhodes on serve increased the lead. This time, Mentor had a response. With Gavin Miller and Reynolds leading the charge and Noam Welch on serve, Mentor cut it to an 11-9 deficit and forced a Stow timeout. Coach John Catalano liked what he saw from his team in the rally and knows the Cardinals will improve. “It’s promising in my eyes because I know that we have the talent,” Catalano said. “I know that we’re going to get there, being such a young program, going against a really good team like Stow and other schools that we’ve played too. It’s a long road and that’s why we play 21 games. We have the pieces, we just need to work on the mental side of things. We need all 13 guys here and ready to play every single day. Once we have that figured out, we’re going to be a really good team.” Stow came out of the timeout swinging. The Bulldogs went on a 6-0 run to force a Mentor timeout and finished the set on a 14-4 run and took it 25-13. The third set started back and forth, with each side finding some open floor. Neither was able to put together a run of more than a few points. Then Stow turned to its middle. The Bulldogs’ size in the middle neutralized the Cardinals’ attack over that portion of the net. Mentor went pin to pin rather than over the top in the first two sets. But in the third, Stow forced them inside, as they racked up eight blocks to Mentor’s one. That propelled them to a 25-16 third-set result. Catalano said Mentor will see teams that have a lot of size as the season continues. The difference has to come in the back row. “We have to go a lot quicker in our setting,” Catalano said. “We’re working on spreading it out now. We have really good hitters, but it’s tough to get them the ball when our passing isn’t perfect. The back row is really good but when they get in their heads, we’re struggling a little bit. So once we can get those roadblocks out of the way, we can really start spreading that ball out.” Reynolds led Mentor with eight kills, and Miller had six. Chazz Weigel racked up five digs. Campbell Tawney led Stow with 10 kills and three aces. The Bulldogs also had good showings from Haiden Der with eight kills and Jonah Hickin with five. Mentor aims to regroup with a trip to Medina on April 8. The score Stow 3, Mentor 0 ...read more read less