Photo by Jay W. Bennett
Fort Frye setter Bella Schilling battles with Garaway’s Morgan Schlabach during a high school volleyball match Saturday in Beverly. Fort Frye won in four sets to claim a sectional title.

BEVERLY — Fort Frye managed to overcome 14 service errors here Saturday as the host Cadets turned back Garaway 25-21, 21-25, 25-21 and 25-15 to capture a Division III sectional final.

The Cadets of head coach Emily Tracewell, who improved to 22-2, now will take on Coshocton during a Wednesday district semifinal match at Meadowbrook High School.

Bella Schilling produced a match-high 46 assists in the victory. Mady Long finished with a match-high 14 kills and four aces while Makenna Long double-doubled thanks to 13 downed spikes and 11 digs. She also had a trio of aces.

“Normally our serving errors are not that bad,” admitted the coach, who watched Julia Zalmanek come through with a dozen kills while libero Lilli Schilling had six digs to go along with her quartet of aces.

“We’re satisfied we won, but probably the worst we’ve played in a while so we’re just going to move on from that and figure out what we need to do better. Serving, for example, but it was a good win and it was good for our hitters to still show up and get the job done.”

Jenna White chipped in six kills, Kianna O’brien, who had two aces and six digs, had a trio of downed spikes and Khloee Ross put a pair to the floor.

The Pirates (13-11) of head coach Jessica Schwartz, who got double figure kills from Morgan Schlabach (12) and McKenzie Miller (10), proved to be a tough out due to their blocking. Miller led the way with six stuffs, but Garaway also received five blocks from Laiken Wallick and four apiece by Nicole Custer and Meghan Petitte, who joined Schlabach with two aces.

The opening set was tied at 16 before a Pirate service error gave the Cadets the lead for good. Makenna Long had all three of her aces at the end of the set, which saw the 25th point come after a Mady Long block that wasn’t able to be returned.

A kill and an ace from Schlabach gave the Pirates a 2-0 lead in set two. It was even at 14-all after a Wallick and Miller double block. A Cadet attack error then gave the visitors the lead for good. Set point to make it a best-of-three match came when Miller registered a kill from one of setter Shelby Gerber’s 32 assists.

After a Mady Long ace gave the Cadets a 4-0 cushion in the third set, the two teams went back and forth. A kill by Petitte kept Garaway within one at 15-14, but the Pirates called a timeout following a White and Mady Long double block on Schlabach that made it 19-16. Miller, though, was able to dominate at the net with a quartet of kills and it was tied at 21 following Wallick’s stuff of White. However, the Cadets took a 2-1 set lead in the match by scoring the final four points. The last two came via Schilling aces.

Garaway’s biggest lead in the final set came at 5-3 after a Miller ace and at 7-5 following a Wallick kill.

However, the Cadets took the lead for good at 13-12 on a Pirate miscue. Zalmanek’s downed spike set up match point, which Makenna Long tallied when the Pirates sent the ball out of play.

Wallick finished with a match-high 13 digs, Gerber had nine while Schlabach and Jordyn Fearon had eight digs apiece.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com