BLANCHARDVILLE — Pecatonica rallied in the third and fourth games to advance to the regional quarterfinal Oct. 21. The Vikings defeated Seneca 25-17, 12-25, 25-18, 25-19 on Oct. 19. Up next is top-seeded Highland.
“It’s always good to start the postseason off at home — it really gives the girls a chance to play on their home court and get loud,” Pecatonica co-coach Liz McGowan said. “And it’s good to have full gyms again, and these girls can play in front of their friends and families.”
The Vikings knew the Seneca was probably the last one for their five seniors. The extra effort, like digging for balls and finding gaps in the front row at the net, did not go unnoticed.
“We talked about everyone moving and actively being a part of every play, and we saw that. We saw them get after it and play to the whistle. They had a lot of save plays, and that’s due to hustle and heart. The back row got us started on a lot of those things,” McGowan said. “I think they really embraced it and just knew that this could potentially be their last night, and they were going to go out with a bang.”
The attitude to give the extra effort and not hold anything back developed the day before in practice.
“We really worked together and came together yesterday in practice,” senior Tessa Green said. “We really struggled at the start (of practice) and we decided we had to pick it up and be ready to win from the start of the match tonight.”
Green is one of several versatile Pecatonica players. She can lineup to be the setter on any given play — or an outside hitter, or hang out in the back row digging and passing balls. Generally, she rotates with junior Chloe Schraepfer for setting.
“We don’t really rely on one hitter — we have two setters, and every hitter we have out there can hit the ball hard. We just have confidence in each other,” Green said.
That versatility played a key role against Seneca.
In the third set, Pecatonica used a run in the middle of the set to go up 16-10, forcing a Seneca timeout.
“Something we talked about all year was coming into a game, and playing ‘our game’,” said Tori Leonard, McGowan’s co-coach.
In the fourth set, Seneca went up 11-8 early on, but Pecatonica continued to grind. On one particular play, it appeared the Vikings wouldn’t be able to return a volley after a dig and subsequent save pushed the ball deeper into the backcourt. But Nivaeh Gross chased it down and sent a bump across the net from near the back wall — only for the hit to find the only available hardwood on the Seneca side.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking, but we were just so excited it was in because it was such a great hustle play,” Green said.
The hustle play helped turn the momentum. Before long Seneca would have to call timeout, and not long later the Vikings led 23-17, standing on the cusp of reaching the second round for just the fifth time since 2001.
“We were really excited to play (Seneca). We really didn’t know what to watch for or what to expect, because we didn’t get to watch much film on them, but we were just ready to win,” Green said.
Pecatonica has not played in a regional final since 2001. In fact, the last time the Vikings were conference, regional or sectional champs was in the 1994 state run.
Lexi Peterson led Pecatonica at the net with 14 kills and seven blocks, while fellow front row partner Siri Thronson had six blocks, and Sienna Runden added five kills. Schraepfer had four blocks herself, as well as a pair of aces and 12 assists. Green tallied 18 assists, five aces, seven kills and three digs. Gross added 10 digs, with Trinity Gruenenfelder adding eight digs and two aces.
“We have some stat leaders, but we also mixed it up across the board,” McGowan said. “In Game 2 we let up a little bit, but when everybody is hitting it keeps them on their toes, and that was one of our biggest strengths.”
The winner of Highland-Pecatonica will face either fifth-seeded Barneveld or 13th-seeded Cassville, which advanced to the second round via forfeit from Argyle.
“We just have to be in that same mindset that who we have is pretty good, but that we can beat them,” Green said.
