Steve Byrne The Chronicle-Telegram LAGRANGE — It’s too bad Kim Watson missed this one. Watson, the first-year coach at Elyria Catholic, was away on business Monday. In her absence, her Panthers scored the biggest victory of her young coaching career by knocking off considerably taller Keystone in four games. Elyria Catholic (5-3) won the first two games 25-18 and 25-23. Keystone survived a scare to triumph in the third game, 26-24, before EC rallied from 10 points behind twice to take a 27-25 decision in Game 4. “Size isn’t everything,” said Morgan Mabry, the assistant coach who guided the Panthers. “Defense matters. We know our size is a disadvantage, so we rely on defense. We have all the defensive specialists for a reason. We have five of them and I think they’re all under 5-foot-6.” The Panthers also have Paige Samek, their all-state-caliber setter who ran the machine for Elyria Catholic. Samek was 142-of-147 setting with 32 assists. “We need our defense to get the ball to Paige, and then let Paige get it in the hands of other people,” Mabry said. “Paige did a great job tonight.” “EC’s defense is very good,” Keystone coach Dave Cross said. “They’re very quick. Paige is excellent. She played a great match tonight.” The finest moments for Samek and the other Panthers came in the closing game. Keystone constructed leads of 16-6 and 20-10 before EC rallied to tie the score at 23 on the way to eventually pulling out the victory. “Winning the first two games let them know they could do it (come from behind),” Mabry added. “They didn’t want to go to a fifth and they just wouldn’t give up.” “How do you blow a 20-10 lead?” Cross asked after his team fell to 6-2. “I don’t know. We had quite a few hitting errors in the match, especially in the fourth game coming down the stretch.” The victory was a rebound for EC, which lost to North Coast League rival Villa Angela-St. Joseph on Saturday. The VASJ loss was the first league setback for the Panthers and came against the team that defeated EC in the district tournament last year. “We came off a tough weekend,” Mabry said. “The players had a couple of great practices to get ready for tonight. They worked real hard.” The Panthers stunned Keystone in the opening game by running off 11 unanswered points, with Jessi Lanier serving, to take a 15-6 lead. The Wildcats managed to cut a 21-9 deficit to 24-18, mainly on the strength of five straight kills by junior middle hitter Kari Kincannon. “They just took it to us in Game 1, and forced us to make adjustments,” Cross said. “I was proud of their effort, but we didn’t execute and EC played a whale of a match.” The Panthers led 12-7 in Game 2 before Keystone tied it at 17. EC scored four straight to take command with Kimi Nakamura serving. The Wildcats got to 24-23 before a kill by Monica Harris ended it. Keystone built a big lead in Game 3. Six straight points gave the ’Cats a 9-3 lead. Keystone was ahead 17-10 before the Panthers tied matters at 19. Erica Gregory gave the Wildcats the victory with a kill. Kincannon had three kills and a block kill to give Keystone an 11-2 lead in Game 4. Kincannon paced all hitters with 28 kills on 66-of-69 hitting. Kristin Gorney led the EC hiters with 13 kills. Caitlin Kelly and Allison Vargo led the passing with 45 and 29 digs, respectively. Harris had six solo blocks and five block assists. Krysten Johnson had eight blocks and Kincannon added six for the Wildcats. Michelle Forney went 113-of-114 setting with 28 assists. Gregory and Lauren Johnson had 21 and 18 digs, respectively.