PHOTO BY JUSTPHOTOS.BIZ

Mentor Lake Catholic had too much firepower for Buckeye and senior middle hitter Marah Farage (right) in their Stow Division II Regional debut.

STOW -- Buckeye's volleyball team ran into a juggernaut on Thursday night in its first trip to the Stow Division II Regional semifinals.

Mentor Lake Catholic got nine kills from Nicole Snyder and eight apiece from Bridget Gridina and Melanie Patterson en route to a 25-19, 25-14, 25-14 sweep of the Bucks.

The Jefferson Area District champion Cougars (20-6) will play Walsh Jesuit in the regional championship Saturday at 2 p.m., while LaGrange Keystone District kingpin Buckeye completed its most successful season ever at 23-3.

"We were just not prepared and focused, and were running all over the court tonight," Bucks coach Brianne Indorf said. "We just couldn't get it going. You can call it what you want, but we just didn't have it. It just wasn't our night.

Nicole Wurstle had a match-high 11 kills for Buckeye, while fellow senior middle hitter (and District Player of the Year) Marah Farage had five. Junior outside hitter Samantha Mueller added nine digs.

Senior Kara Joyce collected nine assists and eight digs, but had to give up her setting duties midway through the second game after suffering a finger injury.

Sophomore Alexa Weiland moved from defensive specialist to the spot and had 10 assists and seven digs, but Indorf said the unexpected change threw the Bucks' great chemistry out of whack as it attempted to get back into the match. In the third game alone, Buckeye was penalized points for being out of rotation.

"We just never got into a rhythm from the start of the (match)," Indorf said. "That's what hurt us. When we get our offense going, we're pretty unbelievable."

Lake Catholic, which got a match-high 33 assists from Audryana Lucha and nine digs from Kelly Stenger, benefitted greatly from its brutal regular season schedule, according to coach Rich Severino.