Girls volleyball: Hersey survives Conant's upset bid

Hersey was in the midst of what might have seemed to be a very scary Halloween nightmare Thursday at the Class 4A Conant girls volleyball regional final.

The Huskies' opponent, the 12th-seeded Cougars, were playing great, and although the Huskies rallied to take the second set after falling in Set 1, they were still a bit back on their heels.

Then came Set 3, and when Conant grabbed a 2-point lead midway through, it might have been a little bit, well, spooky for No. 2 seed Hersey.

"I feel like we all might have been a little scared because we were losing," said Huskies senior setter Kaiya Eshoo. "We knew though, that if we took a deep breath and put it all together, we'd be fine. We all had confidence in each other but it was still a scary moment because it could have been our last game, so we picked it up."

Hersey did just that, coming back to take the lead behind the hitting of senior middle Juliette VanDenHerik and the defense of sophomore Olivia Mellen.

With the score tied 18-18 in the deciding set, the Huskies scored 7 of the final 8 points to win 20-25, 25-21, 25-19.

Hersey (28-8), the Mid-Suburban East champ, will take on MSL champ Fremd at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Maine East sectional. The Huskies have lost to Fremd twice this season.

"We were all a little nervous because it was such a big game," said VanDenHerik. "We realized we had to step it up. We said 'we got this'. We weren't playing Hersey volleyball and knew we had to play our game."

The play of Conant senior Yuri Hara and junior Payton Litney (11 digs, 30 assists) propelled the Cougars (18-18) to a momentum-building first-set win.

The Cougars were right in Set 2 as well until the end when late kills from Nora Zielke, Janine Boyan and Kati Kaburov helped Hersey tie the match.

"I give Conant tons of credit," said Hersey coach Nancy Lill. "They played lights out. The plays that they made, the digs that they made, they kept coming at us. It was quite an effort on their part and Drewann (Conant coach Pancratz) is a young coach who's going to be a legend in this league - just give her time."

The Cougars led the deciding set 11-9, but Hersey caught up and finally took the lead at 19-18 when VanDenHerik put down a ferocious kill.

Then stellar teamwork by the Huskies extended the advantage to 24-19, and Eshoo served up an ace for the match-winning point.

"That's what I was hoping for," said Eshoo of the service winner, "so when it happened I was so happy."

Zielke led Hersey with 12 kills, 2 aces and 8 digs, while Eshoo finished with 27 assists and 12 digs.

Hara, one of 6 seniors on the Conant roster, had 10 kills and 15 digs.

"We played our best - this was our best game of the year," said Hara. "I've played varsity volleyball for four years, but this season was amazing."

"They've been nothing but tremendous for us this year," said Pancratz of her senior class that included Jessica Sharp, Chikere Oduocha, Perpetual Dike, Emma Bowman and Natalie Jurgenson.

"They've been leaders, have had great work ethic and communication skills. It's a group that will be sorely missed."