Holy Repeat: ND wins state championship with 3-0 triumph over Cortland Maplewood
AKRON — Pedal down and stay aggressive.
After all, a team doesn’t have any hopes of repeating or getting to its end goal without mashing the gas — and staying aggressive along the way.
The Notre Dame Titans’ softball program did exactly that from start to finish throughout the 2026 season, and as a result, Notre Dame’s bid to repeat as state champions following its run to the program’s first-ever state title in 2025 was a total success.
Outscoring its opponents by a margin of 50-6 over its six-game postseason stretch this spring, Notre Dame showcased similar dominance in the 2026 OHSAA Division VII State Championship Game against Cortland Maplewood.
The Lady Titans didn’t even let the Rockets obtain even a sliver of an opening, as Notre Dame got two first inning runs off of an RBI single by Lyndsey Schaefer and a throwing error that allowed Schaefer to score. Notre Dame added a run in the third inning on a passed ball.
Fom there, Ava Rush did the rest, as the junior capped off a splendid postseason stretch with nine strikeouts and a complete game two-hitter to repeat as 2026 OHSAA Division VII State Champions with a 3-0 win over Cortland Maplewood at Firestone Stadium in Akron on Friday evening.
The victory caps off what will certainly go down as one of the most dominating two-year stretches to an eventual repeat in small school softball history.
Over the past two seasons, Notre Dame outscored its opponents 95-9 in tournament competition. In the 78 innings that the Lady Titans took part in postseason competition en route to winning OHSAA Division VII State Championships in both 2025 and 2026, Notre Dame only allowed its opposition to score in eight innings total.
A dynamite talent who is heading to Ball State on a NCAA Division I scholarship, Notre Dame senior shortstop Alayla Soard’s toughness and pure talent was on display throughout much of the Lady Titans’ tear to two consecutive OHSAA Division VII State Championships.
“It truly feels amazing,” Soard said. “It is just a blessing. Honestly, we can’t thank God enough. Just being able to glorify Him on the field by winning two state championships, it’s an unexpected feeling, and it shows us that hard work pays off.”
Multi-sport athlete and Notre Dame junior right fielder Jaysa Bryant oozes potential. The All-Ohio girls basketball talent joined the Lady Titans’ softball squad this past season and proved to fit like a glove with her game-changing speed and long frame helping provide an element that was needed for Notre Dame who had lost a key piece to its outfield from last season’s state championship squad in Maddie Entler.
It was Bryant who enjoyed the best individual game offensively, as the junior went a perfect 3-for-3 in the leadoff position with a run scored to head up the Notre Dame offense.
“I didn’t play last year, so I didn’t get to feel this (the feelings of winning a state championship),” Bryant said. “However, it feels really nice. It was a great effort.”
Bryant’s play at the top of the order set up a key piece as Notre Dame looked to drive in the game’s opening run.
Following Bryant’s single to right field in the top half of the opening inning of action, Lyndsey Schaefer — the last in line of the highly-impactful Schaefer sister clan who have made their presences felt across multiple sports at Notre Dame — fittingly came through.
In fact, it was No. 1 who drove in run No. 1 of the OHSAA Division VII State Championship Game, as after a steal of second by Bryant and a move to third base by Bryant on a one-out grounder, Schaefer poked a base hit through the left side to score Bryant and give the Lady Titans a 1-0 lead. Schaefer then scored on what proved to be a critical throwing error, as the senior sprinted home all the way from first in scoring and giving Notre Dame a 2-0 lead.
Those runs proved to be huge against Cortland Maplewood starting pitcher Addison Marker, who was tough to crack. Marker struck out 13 batters in her complete game five-hitter without walking a batter to boot in the contest.
“(Marker) wasn’t using the changeup as much, so for myself personally, I knew that I had to attack,” Schaefer said. “Fortunately, it worked out where I was able to get a pitch that I liked, connect on it, get that first RBI and put us on the board. I was really thankful for that, especially because I hadn’t been hitting particularly well coming in.”
Notre Dame, who scored its third and final run on singles by Bryant and Kate Entler and a one-out wild pitch that scored Soard following an earlier fielder’s choice, rode their own pitching ace the rest of the way.
Junior Ava Rush again threw darts on Friday evening, and in doing so, showed the unmistakeable poise that has greeted so many time and again.
Rush, who had a no-hitter going through the first three-and-two-thirds innings of the ballgame, had runners reach scoring position just twice — once on an error and the second time on an infield single where Maplewood’s Samantha Krieg then stole second base.
But No. 9 countered with nine strikeouts, didn’t walk a batter and, fittingly, got the game-ending pop out to sister Bella at second base to end the game.
The final out concluded one of the most dominant pitching stretches one could hope to see, as the emotional leader of Notre Dame’s squad allowed just three earned runs in 38 innings pitched and stuck out 58 batters in those 38 frames to help her four senior teammates depart Notre Dame High School as state champions — just as she wanted to do so badly.
The game-ending pop fly set a series of emotions that were evident — relief, certainly, but mainly, tears of joy for a goal achieved and tears of sadness as Entler, Schaefer, Soard and Maycee Ford capped off their careers doing what they set out to do together from the beginning.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling,” Entler said. “I grew up with a lot of the girls on this team, and they stuck with me from 8U travel ball to my senior year in high school. I played with them forever, and it’s definitely going to be hard to not play with them.”
“I told myself that it was my last game, and win or lose, I was going to give it my all and be satisfied with that,” Schaefer said. “It doesn’t matter what you do at the plate or what you do on defense. You’re going to be a dog, and you’re going to go after the ball and play like it’s your very last game. Luckily for us, we’re ending it as two-time state champions.”
The two-season stretch saw Notre Dame head coach Shad Ford and his staff of Brandon Entler, Ryan Rush, Jay Stombock and Leslie Mack lead the Lady Titans to a 56-8 overall record, and Notre Dame’s official establishment as a statewide softball power along the path.
“Just having them as my coaches for the very last time and my very last high school game — it just made me feel like this is more than a game,” Soard said. “It’s about making family.”
“They truly do care about us,” Schaefer said. “They may get on us, but at the end of the day, it’s because they love us and they want us to win.”
The state championship softball team at Notre Dame, by number order, is Lyndsey Schaefer, Makenna Hadsell, Jaysa Bryant, Kennedy Lyon, Laikyn Puckett, Bella Rush, Sophia Phillips, Ava Rush, Audrey Bach, Maycee Ford, Candace Oudeh, Kameryn Stringer, Alayla Soard and Kate Entler. Emma Kingrey served as the team manager.
