Volleyball: Newman rallies early, then holds off Eastland to win 1A regional semifinal

POLO – The Newman Comets knew they were going to have a battle on their hands. That’s just the nature of their recent postseason rivalry with the Eastland Cougars.

Newman rallied to win the first set, then held off an Eastland comeback in the second set to win their Class 1A Polo Regional semifinal 25-19, 27-25 on Wednesday night. The Comets (25-7-1) will face Fulton for the regional title on Thursday.

[ Photos from Newman vs. Eastland volleyball regional semifinal ]

The Comets and Cougars had split the last two regional championship matches they played in 2021 and 2019, with Newman winning the first and Eastland taking last year’s. That tough 26-24, 25-23 loss in Lanark last season was still on the minds of the Newman players heading into this one.

“Since it’s become a rivalry, we all came in with that intensity because of last year and the devastation with that,” senior setter Katie Grennan said. “We’ve been talking about it at practice, we’ve been talking about our energy and how we need to start off high and keep that going.”

The two teams played a tight first set, with neither team leading by more than three points until the Comets scored eight straight points to turn a 16-13 deficit into a 21-16 lead. Molly Olson started the surge with a kill, then Jess Johns had a kill and Sophia Ely stuffed a block to finish off the run.

Another Johns kill ended a string of three straight Newman hitting errors, then she served back-to-back aces before Makenzie Duhon tooled the Eastland block for the final kill of the set.

“I think they key was moving things around,” Grennan said. “In the beginning we were playing it easy, making sure we were on. Then once we did that, we started moving Kennedy [Rowzee], we started moving Jess, and we started moving the ball around.”

Newman carried that momentum into the second set, as it jumped out to an 11-4 lead. Johns had four kills and Rowzee spiked two more in that run before the Cougars rallied.

Freshman Trixie Carroll spiked a kill, then Audrey Sundquist stuffed a block to ignite a 6-0 Eastland spurt. The teams traded the next several points, then four Newman hitting errors in a five-point span put the Cougars up 16-14. A kill and a block by Carroll on consecutive points after a Rowzee kill stretched the margin to 19-16.

“That’s been something this team has been working on all season, is having that fight and that competitiveness, even when things aren’t going their way,” Eastland coach Kelsey Thurman said. “I think that match was a tribute to the growth they’ve had this year, because in previous matches, that early deficit may have sealed it and been a done deal for us. But the girls came back, and they wanted it – and they played like they wanted it – but we just had some bad breaks at bad times, and it just didn’t pan out.”

Newman got two kills from Johns and an Eastland error to tie it at 19, then Carroll and Johns traded kills to get to 20-20. Back-to-back kills by Ely made it 22-20 Comets, but a block by Sundquist and a Newman error tied it at 22. The teams traded service errors, then Quinc Haverland stuffed a block to get the Cougars to set point at 24-23.

But a kill by Rowzee and an ace by Grennan flipped it around and put Newman at match point up 25-24. After a Comets hitting error tied the set at 25, Rowzee spiked another kill, then after hustling to try to save the point – and the season – Eastland was called for crossing under the net to end it.

“We knew it was going to be a battle, and I think we rode the momentum as long as we could,” Johns said. “Their fight kind of caught up with us, and I think we kind of got a little bit where we were going through the motions when we got up by seven early. I think we got a little caught on our heels and we weren’t ready for their stuff coming at us. But we ended up figuring it out, eventually.”

Newman’s attacks were different in crunch time in both sets, as Rowzee and Johns started hitting the ball harder and trying to use the Eastland block to their advantage. It was a conscious effort by the Comet hitters to be more aggressive with their swings.

“Just not going easy on the ball, because the worst that’s going to happen if you slam it is you can get blocked,” Rowzee said. “But the harder you hit, the more opportunities you have of it going off the block for a point, or going through the block, or just doing something really good, and that’s what we really focused on was just hitting hard and getting going at the net.”

Johns had eight of her match-high 11 kills in the second set, and she also served five points and two aces to go with a team-high eight digs. Rowzee spiked seven kills, and Molly Olson finished with 12 points, nine assists, five digs and three kills for Newman. Grennan had 13 assists, four digs, five points and an ace, Ely added four digs, two kills and a block, and Addison Foster chipped in six digs. Sam Ackman added five digs and four points for the Comets.

Eastland got a balanced effort across the board, with Carroll spiking nine kills and stuffing a block, and Jenica Stoner finishing with 13 assists, five points and a dump for a kill. Sundquist and Haverland each had two kills and two blocks, Jocelyn Green led the way with 12 digs, and Morgan McCullough served eight points for the Cougars.

“I think that balance, with everybody contributing, is a tribute to the girls and them being coachable,” Thurman said. “We talked about the smart shots and the places we wanted to put the ball against Newman, and the girls really took that and ran with it. I think that’s why you see that kind of success from all areas on the net.”

Grennan and Rowzee both credited their team’s growth in their ability to bring their own energy and play with intensity as a key to Wednesday’s win.

“I think we just had our drive and our enthusiasm through that whole entire match,” Grennan said. “We kept it up, we kept playing with energy, which is super great for us because that’s something we struggled with in the beginning of the season. But we kept everything up, our hitters stayed strong, and that got it done.”

“I think really, it was just our energy,” Rowzee added. “We’ve really been working at practice on always, always, always playing with energy. I think our energy just kept going up as momentum kept going in our favor. Eastland was tough, and it was a good match, but I think we powered through it and really came through with the energy.”

Eastland got a balanced effort across the board, with Carroll spiking nine kills and stuffing a block, and Jenica Stoner finishing with 13 assists, five points and a dump for a kill. Sundquist and Haverland each had two kills and two blocks, Jocelyn Green led the way with 12 digs, and Morgan McCullough served eight points for the Cougars.

“I think that balance, with everybody contributing, is a tribute to the girls and them being coachable,” Thurman said. “We talked about the smart shots and the places we wanted to put the ball against Newman, and the girls really took that and ran with it. I think that’s why you see that kind of success from all areas on the net.”

The Comets now face former Three Rivers foe Fulton in the championship match, looking for their sixth regional title in the last 10 years. The Steamers have won four regional crowns since 2013, and Newman knows it’s going to be a challenge.

But Johns thinks winning the regional semifinal in a pair of close sets might help when the Comets hit the court Thursday night.

“Especially going farther into the postseason, you don’t want to win every game by 10 or 15, because then you don’t really get to feel the pressure put on you,” she said. “So I think it was good that we started out going back and forth with it, and figuring out, ‘Hey, we can actually do this.’ I think that’ll help us next time.”