MACHESNEY PARK – As the final points played out in the Class 4A Harlem Regional final Thursday, Huntley starters and seniors Ally Dion and Caitlin Thorelius looked at the bench for some comfort and advice.

"At one point, Caitlin and Dion look over at me practically with tears in their eyes," Red Raiders coach Karen Naymola said. "I said, 'Just breathe. Just play.'"

Three times, Huntley's season came a point away from ending.

But it didn't.

Huntley reached down and battled back each time eighth-seeded McHenry came within a point of knocking off the sectional's No. 1 seed. Dion had a pair of kills to spoil the Warriors' first two match points, and Thorelius had the third.

McHenry sent one just wide, and Aleah Amelio and Loren Alberts jumped in tandem to stuff Ava Pauley's kill attempt, sending the Red Raiders to a thrilling 25-21, 25-27, 27-25 regional final win and giving Huntley its third regional title in four years.

"I just wanted it so bad," Thorelius said. "I really wanted that. I even told [freshman setter] Taylor (Jakubowski) to set me on that one. I was just so scared that our season would be over."

With the win, Huntley (27-7) advances to play DeKalb in a Huntley Sectional semifinal at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

"We knew our season could have ended and our high school careers could have ended right there," said Dion, who led the Raiders with 23 kills and 22 digs.

"We wanted it more than anything in the world. We want to eventually go down to state, and for that we had to win this game, obviously. It just showed a lot of mental toughness."

Jakubowski (45 assists) set up Thorelius for the kill to tie the third set at 25. Naymola credited the entire team, including Arianna Torres, who subbed in to serve the final two points, for stepping up in the face of adversity.

"It came down to quite a few pressure situations, and we took advantage of some tips," Naymola said. "When the game was on the line, Dion was swinging away, Caitlin was swinging away, and I think that's what it comes down to. The game is on the line, you're going to go down swinging."

McHenry (17-16) was looking to win its first regional title since 1997. The Warriors never looked out of sync or intimidated by the Fox Valley Conference champions. Huntley swept McHenry in both of the teams' regular-season meetings.

At one point, the Warriors trailed, 14-7, in the third set, but refused to go away, grabbing their first lead of the set, 23-22, on consecutive kills by Pauly (team-high 15 kills, two aces, 12 digs).

McHenry had match points at 24-22, 24-23, and 25-24.

Junior Paige Hale added seven kills and seven digs for McHenry, Liz Alsot had five kills, Paige Manssen had 31 assists and five kills, Gabby DePersio had 20 digs, and Izzi Visnjevac had 12 digs.

"No matter what happened, we just talked about being aggressive," Warriors coach Lexi Disselhorst said. "Continue to be aggressive and play our game. I couldn't be more proud of the passion that they played with today. I actually don't have words. They played so awesome."

Amelio added eight kills and 15 digs for Huntley, and Thorelius finished with nine kills. Amelio said it was her team's mental toughness that put them over the top.

"Our defense really worked their butts off to pick up the ball and our offense put the ball away," Amelio said. "We're a young team, but we have a lot of chemistry and we just use that to our advantage to really work together."

UNSUNG HERO

Caitlin Thorelius

Huntley, sr., MB

Thorelius finished with nine kills, but none was bigger than her last kill that tied the third set at 25.

THE NUMBER

3: Match points for McHenry fended off by Huntley

AND ANOTHER THING ...

McHenry came within a point of winning its first regional title since 1997. "We're trying to change the culture to where we expect to win and we deserve to be in the gym and compete with these teams," coach Lexi Disselhorst said. "I'm proud of the season and the way we progressed from Game 1. That's awesome passion right there."