Strong serving and defense carry Panthers to sweep of Lions and spot in sectional title match

HARTSBURG, Ill. — All of the momentum the Camp Point Central volleyball team created by winning the first set of Tuesday’s Class 1A Hartsburg-Emden Sectional semifinal seemed to fade away rather quickly.

It was just a momentary blip.

Despite watching Decatur Unity Christian win four of the first five points of the second set, Central erased that deficit just as rapidly, seized control on Karly Peters’ serve and secured its spot in the sectional title match with a sweep of the No. 1 seed.

The Panthers won 25-16, 25-18 to set up a showdown with the host school on its own floor. Hartsburg-Emden upended Southeastern 25-18, 20-25, 25-20 in the other semifinal.

“They have a solid program. You can walk in the gym and see it all,” Central coach Sarah Bauer-Herron said of the Hartsburg-Emden program that has won one state championship and five state trophies in the past 20 years. “Our hands are full. Leave it all on the court and do the best that we can. If our girls step in and all do their parts, we’re good and we’re solid.

“We’re scrappy. No balls hit the floor. We’re pretty scrappy about getting the ball up. They’ve done a great job of getting better and better on defense and we’ll need that to continue.”

The Panthers’ serving is a weapon, too.

With Central ahead 13-11 in the first set, Panthers junior Kayli Bockhold served five consecutive points, highlighted by back-to-back kills from Karly Peters. It jumpstarted a stretch in which the Panthers outscored the Lions 13-5.

In the second set, Central’s Lauren Miller had three kills to pull the Panthers out of a 4-1 to start and she had a kill in the middle of a four-point service run by Peters that gave Central the lead for good. Miller had seven kills in the second set and Peters had four, but it was the play of Bockhold and others that set the tone.

“Kayli is really the one who comes through at the net with blocks,” Bauer-Herron said. “She gets her hands on those. And there’s Claire Huston in the back row. She’s that quiet little warrior. We count on her to get those digs up.

“It;s nice to see them all contributing in different ways and all of us bringing a little piece to it.”

The best for Bauer-Herron was seeing no lull in the second set.

“We have talked from the beginning about consistency,” she said. “That second set has always seemed kind of a demon for us, even after we come out really hard in the first set. To close the second set shows they gained more confidence I think.

“Also, there’s that tenacity to get it done. You could see it.”

Central (23-7) will face Hartsburg-Emden (29-8) at 6 p.m. Thursday in the sectional championship after the Stags pulled away from Southeastern down the stretch.

The Suns rallied from a set down and bolted to a 7-3 lead in the third set with Amanda Stephens getting two kills in that opening stretch. After Hartsburg-Emden called a timeout, the Stags scored seven consecutive points. The Suns never got closer than two points thereafter.

Southeastern ends its season with a 32-6 record.

“We reached my annual goal of playing volleyball in November, but … oh, what could have been,” Southeastern coach Tim Kerr said.