Volleyball: Dixon rallies in first set, holds off Galesburg in second set to win first regional title since 2014

DIXON – As the ball came back over the net, Dixon senior libero Natalie Davidson calmly bumped a perfect pass to senior setter Sydney Hargrave, who set it to the outside for senior Joey Brumbly.

As Brumbly’s spike hit the middle of the court on the Galesburg side, the three seniors and classmate Ella Govig met in a giant hug in the middle of the court, as their teammates and the boisterous student section crowded around in a jumping, screaming, celebrating mass of humanity.

The Duchesses rallied to win the first set, then held on to take the second set in a 27-25, 25-22 win over the Silver Streaks in the Class 3A Dixon Regional championship Thursday night at Lancaster Gym. They’ll face Limestone in the semifinals of the 3A LaSalle-Peru Sectional at 6 p.m. Monday; Limestone defeated Peoria Notre Dame 25-23, 25-17 in the Richwoods Regional final.

[ Photos from Dixon vs. Galesburg 3A regional final volleyball ]

It’s Dixon’s first regional title since 2014, and to win it on their home court made it even more special.

“Regional champions – that sounds great,” Brumbly said. “It’s crazy. It’s so awesome to be at home and get the regional championship. It’s hard to put it into words.”

The key for the Duchesses (23-11) was to settle down and play their game. With the nerves visibly affecting them early on, they battled back and forth with Galesburg (13-23) for much of the first set. Four straight hitting errors staked the Silver Streaks to a 19-14 lead, then the teams traded errors to give Galesburg a 20-15 lead.

That’s when Dixon found another gear. Madyson Tichler slammed a kill, then back-to-back Galesburg errors brought the Duchesses within 20-18. After a kill by the Streaks’ Syriah Boyd, Govig and Olivia Cox answered with kills for Dixon, then a Brumbly kill tied the set 21-21.

“We started talking more, and getting everybody involved,” Tichler said of the comeback. “We felt more comfortable; we were all nervous at first, and we realized that we shouldn’t be that nervous, and just to play. We settled down and played our best.”

Dixon took a 22-21 lead on a Galesburg error, then a service error – the Duchesses’ sixth of the set – and another kill by Boyd put the Streaks ahead 23-22.

Brumbly tooled the block for a sideout, then Cox smacked another kill to make it 24-23 Dixon. Kills by Galesburg’s Capre Ferguson and Abbott Matthews tied the set at 24 and 25, but back-to-back kills by Tichler finished it off for the Duchesses.

“That gave us a lot of momentum. We were so hyped from the first set, and we wanted to match that – or get even higher – to win the second set, and we did it,” Cox said. “We were all scared a little bit, but we had to settle down. I think once we won the first set, we thought, ‘OK, we’re good now,’ and we pulled it out in the second set.”

Dixon jumped out to leads of 8-4, 11-6 and 13-7 in the second set, with kills by Brumbly, Govig and Morgan Hargrave and a block by Tichler in that stretch. Govig and Morgan Hargrave then ripped kills to make it 16-10 and force a Galesburg timeout.

“We all can do everything we need to. We all are good at placing the ball where it’s supposed to go,” Brumbly said about the balanced attack. “The past few weeks, we’ve been working on smart hitting, smart tipping, and we’ve all just been really excelling at it.

“We just started to go into all the open spots, because there was a big hole in the block, so we were hitting cross a lot, since line [shots] weren’t working at first. That opened everything up.”

But the Streaks weren’t done yet, and battled back. Ferguson spiked a kill, then back-to-back Dixon hitting errors made it 16-13. After a kill and a point by Govig, Galesburg got a kill from Juniper Schwartzman and an ace from Alexis Edgerson, then a Dixon error to get within 18-16.

After a Tichler kill, the Streaks scored the next four points, with a block by Schwartzman, an ace from Ferguson, and a kill by Tayler Raska to take a 20-19 lead.

“We were just hitting the ball hard, and I think that helped,” Galesburg coach Mindy Matthews said. “We spread it out, so that was nice. We were adjusting, and then they were adjusting as well. I wish we could’ve gotten our hands on some more blocks, because I feel like we kind of pride ourselves on our blocking, and there were some that we couldn’t quite close the block and they went through our hands.”

Two errors by Galesburg gave Dixon a 21-20 lead, then another kill by Schwartzman tied it at 21. But a kill by Tichler and an ace by Davidson gave the Duchesses a 23-21 lead, and after a kill by Kiarra Kilgore, Dixon closed it out with kills by Govig and Brumbly to set off the raucous celebration.

“It feels great to win a regional, and even better to win it on this court,” Tichler said. “We were talking about it a little bit, how this might feel – it’s even better than I thought – but we were more focused on how we would play rather than what the ending would be.”

A handful of plays can make a huge difference in a close match, and the Duchesses had a few where the ball looked like it would hit the floor for a Galesburg point, only to have a Dixon player dive for it to save it, and allow the Duchesses to get it back over the net – where Galesburg would either hit into the net or hit out of bounds to give Dixon the point.

It’s almost like stealing points in that scenario, and it came in handy for Dixon down the stretch.

“We were talking a lot, which really helped us, telling each other where to go, and just being down and ready,” Cox said. “We’d get a nice save, then when they’d hit into the net, we got really excited because it was a big boost to win those points.”

“It feels really good to get those, and it’s huge for momentum,” Tichler added. “We usually work on those type of plays in practice, and it helped out tonight.”

Brumbly led Dixon with 10 digs and eight kills, and Tichler and Govig each added seven kills, two digs and a block. Sydney Hargrave had 19 assists, eight points and three digs, Davison added nine digs, five points, two assists and an ace, and Hanna Lengquist chipped in six assists and three digs. Cox had three kills, and Morgan Hargrave finished with six digs and two kills for the Duchesses.

“We really wanted to win in our home gym in front of our home crowd, and we were the No. 1 seed, so we were definitely nervous at first, but when we realized that this is our gym, this is our game, then we got all the nerves out and we played our game, and that was when we really got the momentum going,” Brumbly said. “We have a huge support system, so that was helping us a lot. They were super loud and they were bringing all the momentum for us.”

Kilgore stuffed the stat sheet for the Silver Streaks with 10 assists, five kills, a block, and an ace, and Edgerson finished with five assists, five digs and an ace. Boyd had four kills, Schwartzman added three kills and a block, and Ferguson finished with nine digs, three kills, a block, five points and an ace for Galesburg. Raska added four digs and a kill, and Abbott Matthews chipped in two kills and an assist.

“I would say our serve receive was really good tonight. Of course once we did get down a little bit in spurts, that was because our passes were kind of on the net a little bit, so when our passes are on the net, we have to adjust, we’re out of system, and so that throws us off a little bit. But serve receive was definitely on,” coach Matthews said. “My three passers – Tayler Raska, Capre Ferguson and Avery Wolfe – they serve receive in every single rotation for us, so they’re very comfortable with each other and they know who’s going to get what ball, and so I think that’s very, very helpful, definitely a strength of ours this season. They’ve really meshed back there – and they’re all seniors, so that’s going to be a tough loss.”