Cavaliers Hold Off Columbus Scotus to Win Shamrock Invite Title

<p><em><strong>Kelsie Cada (12) of Bishop Neumann gets a block on Stanton's Ellie Locke during the semifinals of the Shamrock Invitational on Saturday in Columbus. (Photo by Berk Brown).</strong></em></p> <p>COLUMBUS - If we're just being completely honest, you simply cannot stop Bishop Neumann senior <strong>Kelsie Cada</strong>, you can only hope to contain her. And, as Columbus Scotus found out Saturday in the final of the Shamrock Invitational, even that isn't possible a lot of the time.</p> <p>Cada, a Wayne State recruit, simply took over the championship match midway through the second set and helped lead the Cavaliers to a 21-25, 25-4, 27-25 win over Scotus. Cada served out the final 11 points in a row to end the second set and with her team trailing 20-15 in the third set, stepped up to lead the Cavaliers on a rally that resulted in Neumann improving to 4-0 on the season.</p> <p>It was the Shamrocks, 2-2, that ended the first set on a major run, scoring the final seven points to rally from a 21-18 deficit to a 25-21 victory with junior middle <strong>Amber Buhman</strong> winning to ket jousts at the net late to propel the Shamrocks.</p> <p>Neumann was the aggressor to start the second set and ent up 13-3 on an ace serve from freshman <strong>Lauren Thiele</strong>, but Scotus answered with a kill from <strong>Julia Salerno</strong> to make it 13-4. That was the last point Scotus would score in the set, though, as Cada took to the service line and closed it out. She had three ace serves in the run, including one for the final point of the set.</p> <p>In the third set, the teams battled closely at the outset, but Scotus started to pull away midway through the set and took a 20-14 lead on a beautiful setter dump from <strong>Chloe Odbert</strong>. Cada, however, answered with a kill and a block and a <strong>Lindsey Thiele</strong> kill and Scotus hitting error cut the margin to 20-18.</p> <p>An ace serve from Cada eventually tied it at 22-22, but Scotus had a match point at 25-24 that was extinguished on a <strong>Kali Jurgensmeier</strong> kill for the Cavaliers, who then closed out the match on the next two points.</p> <p>Cada finished the championship match with 18 kills, four ace serves, three blocks and eight digs while <strong>Lindsey Thiele</strong> had 11 kills and two digs and Jurgensmeier had 10 kills and two blocks. Setter <strong>Alyssa Rezac</strong> was masterful at mixing the ball around and finished with 31 assists to go with three kills and an ace serve.</p> <p>For Scotus, <strong>Emily Stutzman</strong> led a balanced attack with nine kills while Salerno had five kills and three blocks and <strong>Bailey Lehr</strong> had seven kills and three blocks. Odbert had 23 assists and two kills.</p> <p>In the third place match, Stanton swept Hartington Cedar Catholic 25-11, 25-23. Neumann defeated Stanton in three sets in the semifinals while Scotus also needed three sets to get past Hartington Cedar Catholic in the other semifinal.</p> <p><strong>Jessie Brandl</strong> had 10 kills and eight digs for Stanton in the third place match while <strong>Bree Burtwistle</strong> had eight kills and 10 assists. <strong>Reba Waskowiak</strong> had seven kills and two blocks for the Mustangs. For Hartington Cedar Catholic, <strong>Maddie Wieseler</strong> and <strong>Abby Hochstein</strong> each had four kills. </p>