John Bruce, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
CHILLICOTHE — After dropping Thursday’s first two sets to Westfall, Huntington could have easily packed their bags and gotten ready for basketball season.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
But, if you’ve ever thought Huntington would quit, you simply don’t know about The Township.
The Huntsmen (12-11) stormed back to win the final three sets to shock the Mustangs and earn a trip to next week’s district tournament with a five-set victory by a 15-25, 21-25, 25-17, 25-18, 15-9 final.
“Going into the third set, we knew what we had to do,” Huntington’s Kaci Carroll said. “We had to come back for coach [Jackie Stauffer]. It’s her first year with us. And we had to do it for ourselves. We really wanted this.”
After the two squads split their regular season meetings, fans around the Scioto Valley Conference anticipated the third matchup being a possible classic.
The Mustangs stumbled out of the gates, trailing 8-4 in the first set, before exploding to dominate the rest of the set. Hitters Lauryn Blackburn and Aubrey Clark controlled the net, while setter Jaylyn Wippel set up her teammates for success throughout the big run.
On the other side, Huntington was having issues with ball-handling, getting called for multiple violations throughout the opening set. The Mustangs put away the first with a big kill from Clark, her third of the set.
The second set continued to be much of the same way, with violations piling up for the Huntsmen. Meanwhile, Blackburn and Clark built up the Mustangs’ score. Defensively, Grace Long, Karli Thornton and Leah Johnston paced the Mustangs, helping to keep the Huntsmen off the board en route to a 25-21 victory.
However, in a 2-0 hole, quietly, the Huntsmen still had confidence they could make a comeback and that confidence would be verified immediately to start the third from an unexpected place.
Freshman Lilly Steele.
Steele started off the third at the service line. Three serves later … three aces for Steele and a 3-0 lead for Huntington. They’d never relinquish that lead throughout the third. The ball-handling for the Huntsmen was much better and continuously found Huntington’s big three hitters: Kaci Carroll, Emma Hinshaw and Meredith Hirsch.
Carroll, Hinshaw and Hirsch repeatedly took passes from Steele and Leah McCloskey and found the court to give the Huntsmen momentum, which carried into the fourth.
Westfall began the next set with a kill from Clark, but the Huntsmen took control following that point. Carroll and Hirsch put together another solid set hitting wise, while McCloskey, Steele and Allie Baker each put down aces. Another dominant win for the Huntsmen set the scene for a furious race to 15.
A Lauryn Blackburn kill, her 13th, tied the fifth set at 4-4. But after that, it was all Huntington.
Carroll hammered down back-to-back kills before Hirsch tallied one of her own to force a Mustang timeout. Hinshaw served up an ace to make it 8-4 out of the timeout. After a mini-run from the Mustangs, Huntington took home the final three points of the match, highlighted by a kill by Hinshaw to wrap up a sectional title.
“[An SVC schedule] prepares us a lot [for the tournament]. It lets us know what we’re up against and what we have to do [to win],” Carroll said.
Huntington’s ability from the service line ultimately made the difference in the match, with Steele having nine aces, unofficially.
Huntington now advances to a Division III district semifinal at 6 p.m., Tuesday. That night, they’ll meet with Adena for a third time this season at Piketon High School.
“I’m really excited. I think we can get them this time,” Huntington’s Meredith Hirsch said. “We’ve really been working hard. If we play like we did tonight, we can beat them.”
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