Suns unable to stem changing tide late in second set, fall to Comets in Class 1A super-sectional

LANARK, Ill. — After falling into a deep hole to start Friday night’s Class 1A Eastland Super-Sectional, the Southeastern volleyball team looked like it had recovered and regained control of the match.

But the Suns couldn’t fend off a Sterling Newman Central Catholic rally in the second set, and the Class 1A runners-up from a year ago missed out on a return trip to Redbird Arena in a 25-19, 27-25 loss.

“We’re really upset right now, but I’m proud of the girls, and we’ll look back at this eventually and think it was one we could’ve got, and we’ll look fondly on the season and the last two years, especially with the seniors that we’re losing,” Southeastern coach Tim Kerr said. “Obviously our effort was there the whole night. We’ll never fault that, and we went down swinging and went down to a nice team that kind of got hot tonight.”

Southeastern (34-7) fell behind 11-1 at the start of the match, but slowly clawed its way back into it. Kenzie Griswold had two kills midway through the first set, then Abbey McMillen spiked back-to-back kills to cut the deficit to 16-12. After a Newman kill, Griswold slammed a kill and Abigail Shaffer put away an overpass, and after a Newman net violation, suddenly it was 17-15.

But an illegal hit on Southeastern sparked a Newman run, and an Amanda Stephens kill was all the Suns managed after that.

“I don’t know why, because we’ve got a lot of big-game experience, but we came in pretty nervous and pretty shell-shocked right off the bat,” Kerr said. “We got down 11-1 that first set, and obviously did some things uncharacteristic of ourselves and didn’t have our best effort.

“We did a good job of coming back and kind of built some momentum; to have that bad of a start and come back and only 25-19 is a tribute to our kids. It’s kind of what we’ve done all along, this year and last year, is just kind of dig ourselves holes and then dig ourselves out of them.”

Southeastern carried that into the second set, as kills by Summer Ramsey and Stephens and an ace from Shaffer staked the Suns to an 8-4 lead. After Newman (29-7-1) got back within 9-7 on back-to-back kills by Jess Johns, Summer Ramsey, McMillen and Griswold all had kills in a four-point span, and Savannah Ramsey followed with an ace to stretch the lead back to 15-8.

Consecutive kills by Stephens made it 19-10, and a Shaffer kill on the second hit answered a Johns spike and the Suns led 20-11.

“All we were saying out there on the court was win one point, then win the next, and then the next,” said setter Katie Grennan, Newman’s lone senior. “It’s very difficult to get that in your head, but we ended up pulling through.”

But Johns had a kill for a Newman sideout, then three hitting errors and a net violation on four straight points helped Newman get within 20-16. Johns spiked a kill and Molly Olson served an ace for the Comets to make it 20-18.

Stephens slammed a kill to stop that Newman run, then the teams traded errors as Southeastern took a 23-19 lead. But a serve into the net was followed by back-to-back kills by Newman’s Kennedy Rowzee, then a double-hit by the Suns tied the set at 23.

“Really, just focusing on playing point by point, and realizing that the game’s not over,” Rowzee said of the strategy. “We kind of started slow in the second set, but just playing one point at a time, coming back and finishing that game was just amazing. We really all are just working together, and it’s just coming together really nicely.”

A service error by the Comets put Southeastern at set point, but another Rowzee kill tied it at 24. Shaffer dumped a kill into the middle of the Newman defense for another set point at 25-24, but Johns ripped a kill from the back row to tie it again.

Newman then went back to Johns, who rotated into the front row, for two more kills on the outside to finish off the Comets’ victory.

“Second set, I thought we came back and did exactly what we needed to do to put ourselves in a situation to win,” Kerr said. “We played really, really well the first two-thirds of the set, then I think we just kind of let down a little bit and obviously made a few more errors than we should have from the service line and also attacking. 

“Their serving was effective, and we weren’t able to run good offense because of our passing not being as crisp as it needed to be, and obviously we let them hang around a little too long. That was great for them and just misfortune for us.”

Johns led the Comets with 15 kills and 14 digs, while Rowzee had 10 kills, six digs and 1.5 blocks, and Grennan finished with 16 assists, six points and four digs. Olson added nine assists, five digs, six points and two kills, Ackman served nine points and three aces to go with five digs, and Addison Foster chipped in 10 digs.

Shaffer finished with 17 assists, eight points, three kills and two aces for Southeastern, while Stephens had nine kills, Griswold spiked five kills, and McMillen had four kills for the Suns. Summer Ramsey had two kills, and Savannah Ramsey served seven points and an ace.