AT THE NET — Catholic Central’s Anna Arai makes a successful attack as Harrison Central’s Madison Zeroski goes for a block. - Kailin Hughes

CADIZ — Harrison Central came out fired up Monday for its senior night showdown with visiting Catholic Central.

Bolstered by a raucous student section and some forceful attacks from junior middle hitter Lauren Doane, the Huskies took the first set 25-19.

Doane, who led Harrison with 23 kills, teamed with fellow juniors Madison Zeroski and Kennedy Dunlap in hitting off and through Crusaders’ block attempts for first-set kills.

Catholic Central coach Sherri Barber felt her team was playing too defensively early and imparted the need to go on the offensive.

It worked. The Crusaders needed an extra point in the second set, but that win turned the tide as the visitors left Harrison County with a 19-25, 26-24, 25-17, 25-21 victory.

“They have some nice hitters, but I believe we played much better after the first set,” Barber said. “The last few games I felt like we were playing too much defense and needed to up our offensive play and we did so.”

The win saw Barber’s crew improve its record to 12-6 with Thursday’s cutout for the OVAC tournament looming.

SCC came in fifth in the Class 2A ratings, trailing Southern Local 34.25 to 33.41 as of Sunday night for the fourth and final spot.

The win vs. the Huskies accounts for 20 extra points (60 to 40) given Harrison is a class 4A opponent. Eight bonus points were earned given Harrison’s four wins.

“I’m not sure if it’s enough to get into the OVACs,” Barber said. “It’s going to be close. We have Shadyside on Thursday will also count.”

A fellow 2A school, a win vs. Shadyside (2-16) will provide only 44 points. Southern swept winless East Canton on Monday, 3-0, and faces state-ranked Wellsville (13-5) on Tuesday and United (9-7) on Thursday. The Tigers previously swept the Indians 3-0 while Southern needed five sets for to defeat United in the first meeting.

The trio of Ava Marcino, Lilly Balzano and Anna Arai started to lead the Crusaders’ comeback in the second set.

Marcino and Balzano each finished with eight kills, followed by six for Arai, who led the trio with 10 blocks.

Harrison actually jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the third after Zeroski held serve for five-straight points and Doane hammered down a couple strong kills as part of the brief spurt.

But Arai finally stopped the bleeding on with an attack to the back row that was dug out of bounds for a 5-1 score. Balzano wasted little time in scoring the second point as she took matters into her own hands and hammered down the Huskies return of Marcino’s serve.

From there is was a mixture of solid attacks, well-placed dropped shots and key blocks (Balzano and Ella Maragos each totaled five to back Arai’s 10) that led Catholic Central to victory.

Doane’s kill count led the Huskies, with Leah Grady adding 13 points to go with 25 assists and Nessa Culver registering 22 digs.

Next up for the Huskies is a meeting with Buckeye Local on Wednesday in Connorville.