Girls volleyball: Galena denies Harvest Christian repeat state trip
OREGON - Harvest Christian defeated Galena a year ago in the Class 2A supersectional to earn its first state berth, and the Pirates turned the tables in the rematch in a packed Oregon High School gymnasium Friday night.
Galena won the Class 2A Oregon supersectional 25-16, 25-19, denying Harvest Christian (26-13) back-to-back state appearances. Instead, Galena (35-4) will play Nashville in the state semifinals at Illinois State next Friday.
While Galena brought back almost its entire lineup from last year, the Lions started three underclassmen.
Harvest coach Mike Bui said that was a big difference.
"They are a very experienced team," Bui said. "It's the same team as last year. With another year experience they just got better, and our young kids struggled a little bit with this type of match and what's at stake. It's tough to play in these kinds of gyms."
Galena never trailed in the first set and fell behind just once all night, 10-9 in the second.
The Pirates scored the next five points and never looked back.
"We know they are a heck of a good squad and well-coached and we were happy to play them on a neutral court and not to travel three hours to play them on their own court," Galena coach Dennis Wills said.
How much of a neutral court Oregon was is debatable. While Harvest brought a large crowd including a huge student section, Galena probably doubled it.
"Isn't that something? Pirate Nation turned out," Wills said. "Our fans are awesome, simply awesome. They just kept coming in, coming in. I was like, 'Nobody is in Galena right now because that's about all of us.'"
Senior outside hitter Morgan Wills gave those fans plenty to cheer about. It started on the first point of the match when she blasted a ball for the first of her 7 kills in the opening set.
"She was lighting it up tonight," Dennis Wills said. "Coming off an ankle injury, she's just back to being about 90 percent now. She was really on tonight."
Wills finished with 15 kills - 13 more than the next closest teammate.
"She's so good on tape, she's better in person," Bui said. "I thought she graduated. I saw her on tape and thought, 'Really, this kid is still around?"
Galena took leads of 4-1, 12-5 and 16-9. Wills called timeout when the Lions pulled within 16-12 after Hayley Martin put a ball down, but the Pirates surged again and closed the set on the Lions' seventh hitting error.
Mackenzie Muehleip blocked consecutive balls and finished with 4 blocks while Galena also played solid in the back row.
"They didn't let anything drop," Bui said. "We don't see defense like that very often. Kudos to them. They blocked well. They made our life a little bit tougher than it normally has been."
A kill by Jimena Montano gave Harvest its only lead of the match at 10-9 in the second set. Morgan Wills again got hot with 3 straight kills as Galena never trailed again, winning the match on Sami Wasmund's ace.
Martin, Maya Jenkins and Madison Pfister combined for 15 kills for Harvest Christian.
Setter Kaitlin Murray is one of four seniors on a Harvest team that will return many key players next year.
"We had a good season," Murray said. "We had a lot of ups and downs but we played phenomenal. We put it all out there tonight and it just didn't happen."
"Overall I'm very proud of them," Bui said. "To get this far is great. I can't be disappointed at all. We played a very good team in Galena. They played very well on their side of the court."