Eaton’s instincts lead to tide-turning moment as Raiders sweep Panthers in WCC match

QUINCY — Annie Eaton’s volleyball acumen continues to amaze first-year Quincy Notre Dame coach Danielle White.

For a handful of points during Monday’s West Central Conference match against Camp Point Central, Eaton, normally a setter, found herself at outside hitter in a rotation White likes to implement from time to time. 

“I remember this summer when I had first met the girls, and they were playing Queens or something, and I watched her hit, and I’m like, ‘This girl can not only set but she can hit the ball.’ I said we were going to work something in,” White said. “It’s her senior year, let her have fun a little bit.”

With the Raiders leading 14-12 in the second set, Eaton’s swing went into the Panthers’ block, but as soon as she hit it and the ball came back over the net, she sprinted to the opposite pin and delivered a picture perfect set to junior middle hitter Eva Breckenkamp, who finished off the point with a kill. The Raiders went on to win the set and earn a 25-12, 25-15 sweep of the Panthers at The Pit.

“That’s Annie Eaton for you,” White said. “That’s that second ball mentality that Annie has. I never doubt she’s going to touch it because she will come out of nowhere, and I’ll be like, ‘How did she get that?’ And she gets it every single time. It’s unbelievable. Her mentality is that the ball’s not touching the floor because it’s mine. You see it every game.”

Eaton said her instincts, which usually serve her well, just took over.

“I just read the play,” Eaton said. “I think volleyball instincts are just something I’m gifted with. I’m able to read things and just get to the ball.”

Eaton started the match with one of the Raiders’ five aces in the first set. Senior Madalyn Boyer followed with three of her own in that set to help the Raiders pull away.

“I would definitely say that was one of my better days,” Boyer said of her serving performance. “At the beginning of the season, I missed a lot of serves, so I think my mindset just had to change. I like serving and I like playing back row and to be able to keep doing that and get them in. My mindset just kind of changed, like not overthinking it too much, and now I’m getting more serves in and missing less.”

The Panthers battled the Raiders to ties at 7 and 8 in the first set, and the Raiders only led 12-11 before rattling off eight straight and 13 of the final 14 points.

“I think we just understood that we’re going to make errors,” Eaton said. “Especially when we’re serving tough, we’re going to serve balls out but we’re also going to get those aces that help us. We just took a deep breath and realized that we were the better team. We just needed to play like it.”

The Panthers jumped on the Raiders 4-0 in the second set, but the Raiders caught fire again. They immediately scored the next four points and never trailed after it was 5-4.

“Our energy was kind of down there for a little bit, and then once we started actually hitting, we all got super excited,” Raiders senior outside and middle hitter Lauren Hummel said. “That’s when it started flowing.”

Junior outside hitter Nora Wiley delivered the final of those hits with a thunderous swing down the middle of the court to seal the match.

“It takes a girl to put a ball on the floor for them to be like, ‘Oh, we’re ready to go.’ Just somebody doing something outstanding. That’s what they build their energy on,” White said. “As you watch the game progress, you just see it take off point after point after point. We have to start with that energy versus finding it.”

Central coach Sarah Bauer-Herron said the Raiders’ pace and ability to throw other teams off kilter made life difficult for the Panthers.

“They do so many great things as far as decision making, moving our defense around, changing the tempo, and then we looked like we were stuck on defense,” Bauer-Herron said. “We’ve got to go back to that ‘gotta go’ mentality and not hesitate at all because a team like QND doesn’t give you a second to hesitate.”

The Panthers (10-2, 3-1 WCC) will continue conference play at 6 p.m. Tuesday with a road match against Liberty. The Raiders (23-2, 6-0 WCC) will hit the road for a non-conference match Wednesday against Western.

“Even though we didn’t start off our sets super well, I think it was encouraging how we bounced back,” Eaton said. “Obviously against good teams, we don’t want to get down like that, but I think the way we’re able to bounce back just gives us a little bit more energy and confidence going into the big games the next two weeks.”