Sunday night in Pickerington was a night of history in Ohio boys volleyball. For the first time since 2004 one of the two teams in the state title match was a non-GCL South team. And, for the first time since Centerville won back-to-back titles in 2001 and 2002, a team not named St. Xavier, Elder or Moeller hoisted a state championship trophy.
“I think the gap is just getting closer and closer in Ohio high school volleyball,” said Moeller captain and libero A.J. Eckhoff. “Ohio volleyball is at its best right now and it’s only going to get better from here.”
“It was a hell of a match and I was proud to be a part of it,” said Moeller captain Tucker Skove.
Moeller and St. Edward battled back and forth, splitting the first four sets of the best of five match. Moeller took an 8-4 lead in the deciding set, but with the score tied at 11-11 Moeller took a timeout.
Moeller warms up before the match last night (from my Twitter account: @adamniemeyer)
It was 13-13 when St. Edward called a timeout. The Eagles got the next point setting up the first match point at 14-13. Moeller tied it up at 14-14. St. Ed’s jumped to a 15-14 lead, but Moeller tied it at 15 on a tip by Casey Pieper.
St. Edward took the lead again, 16-15, and Pieper’s tip on that match point fell just inches outside the line on the St. Edward side of the net, handing the Eagles their first ever state title in volleyball.
It was easily the second best volleyball match I’ve ever seen. The first took place four years ago on May 27, 2007.
In an overly crowded gym at Cincinnati State Moeller battled Elder for a state title in a five-game marathon that felt like it took six hours to complete.
Every point was crucial in that match.
Moeller won 22-25, 25-19, 27-29, 26-24 and 15-12.
Last night I said to myself, ‘This match has shades of 2007 written all over it.’ And it was almost exactly like that match in 2007, except the 2011 Moeller volleyball team was equivalent to the 2007 Elder volleyball team. That Panther team, in my senior season, won games one and three, but fell just short in the deciding game.“If Moeller and St. Edward played ten times tonight, Moeller would win five times and St. Eds would win five times,” Skove said.
“They had two of the best players in the state, two of the best players the state has ever seen,” Eckhoff added.
Since 1997, when Moeller won their first state title, only three titles have been taken by non-GCL South schools: Centerville’s two and St. Edward’s win last night.
Moeller’s head coach, Greg Ulland, was a setter on that 1997 team, and last night was his last match as head man of the Moeller volleyball program. Moeller’s assistant coach Joe Burke stepped down too.
“We definitely wanted it for him. He’s one of us as far as we’re concerned,” said Eckhoff.
“We wanted it really bad for him,” said Skove. “With a big senior class too, we definitely wanted it for all of us too. We came up a little short tonight but it’s not the win or the loss that is going to make us or define Greg’s success.”
I felt the pain of the Moeller players, coming up just short of their ultimate goal. Even though I didn’t play, I sat at the end of the Elder bench for that five game marathon in 2007, and lived through every up and every down, every point that made the difference in that match.
But in the end, I realized that it didn’t matter if we won or lost that year. It was about more than winning and losing. The captains from Moeller noted that same thing last night.
“It’s a lot more about the relationships we’ve made throughout the year. We sent [Coach Ulland] out on the right note,” said Skove.
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It was truly the second best match of volleyball I had ever seen behind that match in ’07. I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Greg Ulland, head coach of Moeller, as well as Tucker Skove and A.J. Eckhoff, who walked out of their locker room last night and gave me some time for my stories for FOX19. They didn’t need to, but they were more than willing in a tough situation to talk.
Ulland has been more than helpful over the past two seasons and very gracious to me for my work in covering volleyball last season, including the story I did on Moeller’s volleyball dynasty.
He’s had a hell of a run as a head coach, and I wish him nothing but the best in his future. Eckhoff and Skove told me they’ll both be attending Ohio University next fall, and they both plan on playing volleyball there. Skove also might play football. He was a running back on Moeller’s team this year.
*The photos from 2007 were taken from EHSports.com (many years ago)
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