Erie-Prophetstown volleyball advances to play for first regional title as co-op

STERLING – Outside of some early rust to shake off after playing for the first time in a week, the Erie-Prophetstown volleyball team played some of its best volleyball in Tuesday’s Class 2A regional semifinal matchup with Oregon.

The second-seeded Panthers took care of business against the ninth-seeded Hawks, winning 25-15, 25-17. E-P (30-3-2) advances to face seventh-seeded Rock Falls in Thursday’s regional final at 6 p.m. The Rockets took down Sherrard in three sets after trailing the first set 12-0.

Senior Jamie Neumiller had nine kills, two aces and two blocks in E-P’s 10th straight win.

“I think we’re working well as a team and building momentum off of each other,” she said. “We have a lot of potential, and I’m really excited for that.”

After an impressive regular season and a 10-0 mark in the Three Rivers Conference, the Panthers are in position to potentially win their first regional title since becoming a co-op in 2018.

Lauren Abbott led E-P with 11 kills and added two more blocks. She and the other hitters constantly were able to get off clean hits at the net that Oregon (18-17) often could not return.

“I think our setter Kaylee Keegan pushes really hard to try to get us the best ball,” Neumiller said. “She really tries the hardest to make us look good.

“We have many, many hitters who can put the ball down.”

Keegan said the team does a good job of spreading the ball around. She finished with 24 assists and two aces.

“Our passers do really well setting me up so I can set up our hitters and run a good offense,” Keegan said.

Keegan trusts her hitters and said it helps having multiple options. Ashlyn Johnson also had six kills and added nine digs.

“They’re really confident with the ball,” she said, “so it helps me more.”

The goal is to win a regional title, but the team is focused on taking one point at a time and playing its game. E-P trailed 2-0 in the opening set but would not trail again. The Panthers were especially sharp to open the second set, leading 10-1.

E-P coach Heather Bruns said the team’s effort was “amazing.”

“It was fun to see them go out with the intensity they went out with and were ready to go,” she said. “We’ve talked a lot about peaking at this point.”

She said the team’s back row and serve-receive has been “spot on” in recent weeks.

“That first-ball contact leads to Kaylee being able to feed whoever she wants to feed,” Bruns said.

Bruns tells the team to just take one day and one game at a time, and to treat the postseason like any other game.

“If we go out and do what we’ve done all season,” Bruns said, “we have high hopes of being successful Thursday and possibly after that.”

Oregon coach Farrell Cain said the team did what it could and didn’t quit. E-P just has great hitters and a tough defense.

“They’ve got some good attackers in the front row, and the defense is pretty scrappy,” she said. “I think we struggled a little bit blocking, so that put a lot of weight on our defense.”

Cain said the team had a good season and accomplished goals of having a winning record and being competitive in the postseason.

“Overall, I was proud of the girls and what they did this season.”