Whether she was serving or desperately trying to knock the volleyball over the net during a lengthy rally, Newark senior Heather Buhle delivered one big play after the next during Thursday’s Class 1A regional final match against conference foe Serena at Yorkville Christian.

Buhle helped get the Norsemen off to great starts in both sets with her potent serving and earned the final point in a wild finish in the opening set of a 25-22, 25-13 sweep.

Newark (32-4) advances to take on Stockton in Tuesday’s semifinal in the Class 1A Lanark (Eastland) Sectional.

“That was awesome because I was so exhausted after that rally,” Buhle said. “I was just praying to be done. Serena is very scrappy good at sending it over even when it goes for a crazy long rally.

“Everyone was tired and I just had to get it over and in and roll shotted it and it rolled off the tape and they weren’t able to get it. It was an awesome feeling.”

Trailing by 10 points in the first set, Serena (24-12-1) regrouped during a timeout and rallied back to within 24-22 after a block from junior Emily Hoffman.

“They called timeout at 19-9 and I sad this is where we can put them away or the kids are going to have a breakdown,” Newark coach PJ McKinney said. “And this was the third time seeing Serena, a conference opponent.

“They got all the momentum but we got to 24 (points) and only had to get the one point and then came out blazing in that second game. Heather (Buhle) had a big run in service. We have some tough serves and tried to focus on some of the girls that can’t pass real well. We played defense better than (on Wednesday). We struggled in serve-receive the whole game (against Yorkville Christian in the regional semifinal). We were terrible at it. It was like night and day.”

The Norsemen arrived at Yorkville Christian early and such preparation paid off.

“They came in at 4:30 for early reps on serve-receive,” McKinney said. “They got all the jitters out and against a team like this they were excited.”

Newark swept Serena on Oct. 3, but had to go three sets to beat the Huskers on Oct. 11.

“Their serving was phenomenal tonight,” Serena coach Jennifer Shugrue said. “Their serving hasn’t been like that when we played before. They were really on and we’ve had such a strong serve-receive the past few weeks that this was very uncharacteristic of us. We just could not get a pass up to get anything running with our offense. We have dynamite hitters but didn’t get to showcase them. We were really hoping to run our fast offense like we have before.”

It was a tough ending for a Serena team that had a fantastic year. Plus, Shugrue was coaching her daughter, senior Rebekah Shugrue, for the last time. Aubrey Duffy, Trinity Weber and Kendall Whiteaker also competed for the last time in the Serena uniform.

“It’s been great coaching (Rebekah), she and I have a great coach/player relationship so that’s been really nice,” Shugrue said. “It is tough. This is one of my favorite groups to coach in all the years I’ve been coaching. This is the furthest we’ve gone at the school in eight years so that’s something. They had a great record, one the best records we’ve had in a while. So these are good girls, good human beings, which makes it even more fun when you’re coaching them.”

Newark jumped ahead 7-1 in the first set behind six consecutive service points from Buhle. She outdid herself in the second set, dropping a pair of aces within her seven straight service points.

“We knew they were going to come back in the second set with a lot of energy and determination, especially since it was a regional championship and they hadn’t beat us yet,” Buhle said. “We were very focused on building a lead from the beginning and keeping it the whole way through.”

Newark had eight aces with Buhle leading the way with three. She added five kills. Zoey Carlson had seven kills and Rylie Carlson led the Norsemen with 10 kills. Taylor Jeffers led the winners with 18 assists. Jeffers, Morgen Hergenhahn and Rylie Carlson had eight digs apiece.

“It was definitely nerve-wracking playing them three times in October and knowing a lot of the girls,” Rylie Carlson said. “It was a big moment in a regional. We wanted to make sure we went ahead and stayed ahead and not let them go on big runs.”

Anna Hjerpe had six kills and nine assists, Whiteaker added five kills, Hoffman had three blocks and Shugrue had nine assists for the Huskers.