NWOAL FOES … Archbold’s Lexi Ripke (#14) tips the ball over the top of Delta’s Keagyn Gillen during last Thursday’s sectional final at Archbold.
PHOTOS BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
DELTA PANTHER … Ellie Martinez sets up a teammate in last week’s sectional final at Archbold.
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
ARCHBOLD (October 16, 2025) – Fans who arrived late to the Archbold-Delta Sectional volleyball final probably missed most of, if not the whole match.
That’s because the Bluestreaks took just 48 minutes to take a 25-16, 25-4, 25-11 decision over the Panthers to reach a Division V district semifinal match at Clay High School.
“Tonight, we started zero and zero just like everybody else,” veteran Bluestreak coach Debbie Culler stated.
“It was ‘let’s get our nerves out of the way tonight, let’s gel together because we have had some ups and downs lately. It was a night to rebuild confidence, and I think we did just that.”
The Streaks jumped on top early behind kills from Kennedy Hurst, Lexi Ripke, Molly Harris, and Miley Gericke.
Delta countered with aces from Keagyn Gillen, Anabell Gillen, and three straight strong serves by Ellie Martinez to keep in contact, but Hurst, Gericke, and Harris again came through with kill shots to help Archbold extend their first set lead to the finish.
Harris’s trio of kills got Archbold started in the second set, and the snowball rolling down the mountain grew when both Autumn Benecke and Harris rattled off four aces each, blowing the set wide open, and pacing Archbold to the huge second set victory.
“It is a big part of our game,” Culler explained of her team’s strong serve performance.
“We want to serve tough, whether it’s an ace or getting the other team out of system, but we definitely want to be strong with that and try to take them out of their game, which helps us get back into our Bluestreak offense.”
“They did a nice job,” Culler said of Benecke and Harris. “Autumn is a spot server, and Molly is a little more of a power server. It was a nice run between the two and made it hard for them to pass.”
In the third, the Streaks broke away from a 9-9 tie, scoring 16 of the last 18 points in the match.
Again, it was Harris with a long string of points, sticking five aces out of the nine-point run she began with a serve.
Gericke and Hurst each added on a pair of kills to put the Panthers away for the night.
Archbold’s opponent in the district will be league foe Evergreen, who had a three-set victory over Genoa.