Lady Huskers hang tough, defending champ Newark hangs on in opener

SERENA — It had been 486 long days since the Newark High School volleyball team had last taken the floor together in competition.

On that day, the Lady Norsemen claimed their second consecutive Class 1A state championship with a hard-fought, two-set victory over Illini Bluffs.

Tuesday evening, Newark had to survive another hard-fought, two-set victory, this one in the season opener against Little Ten Conference rival Serena.

The Lady Norsemen withstood a tough test from the Lady Huskers on Al Stegman Court, ultimately coming out 25-19, 25-19 winners to open the COVID-19-delayed 2020-21 season.

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Newark's Megan Williams (11) spikes the ball past Serena's Kallie Cantlin (15) and Katie Baker (23) during the Little Ten rivals' season-opening match Tuesday, March 16, 2021, at Serena. (Scott Anderson)

“I was a little nervous at first, but I’m glad we got our first game out of the way, and I thought we all played really well,” Newark senior setter Taylor Christian said.

“I didn’t think [this volleyball season] was going to happen. When they moved it to spring, I was excited. It felt good to be able to play here tonight.”

The Lady Norsemen (1-0) were expectedly not in postseason form after the nearly year-and-a-half layoff ... although a lot of that had to do with some great play by host Serena (0-1).

“It’s good to be back on the court, playing the game,” Lady Norsemen coach Tonya Grayson said. “It’s been a long time, you know?

“We knew it wasn’t going to be beautiful tonight, but I thought we did some nice things. There are some things we need to work on ... but that’s what a lot of this year is going to be about, figuring things out.”

Serena stayed within arm’s length the entirety of the opening set and led as late as 13-12 in the second set until Newark slowly began to pull away. Newark scored seven of the first set’s final 10 points and 13 of the second set’s 19 final rallies.

Two seniors and a junior paced the Lady Huskers: 11th-grader Katie Baker with 14 assists and five kills, Kallie Cantlin with six kills and Libby Farrell with eight digs. Libero Maddie Schupp added seven digs and Paige Sexton six as Serena went toe-to-toe with the state champs point for point nearly all night.

“I feel like we did super good,” Serena coach Katy Severson said. “We finished with the scores 19-25 in both, and I know those are losing scores, but we put up solid blocks, we put away some really big kills.

“And I think most importantly, we played such good defense. I have two seniors as [defensive specialists], Emma Holdiman and Libby Farrell, and they do a great job with leadership, and a new role that was great to see was [libero] Maddie Schupp. She was all over the place and owned that jersey on her first night as a varsity player.”

A late Morgan Long ace serve followed by a back-row kill from Madi Malone proved to be the daggers in the opening set, while in the second set it was a Malone kill that tied the score at 13 and a six-point service run from Christian – including two Malone kills and another courtesy of Grace Thrall – that allowed the Lady Norsemen to take control.

Like Serena, three seniors led the way for Newark. Christian finished with 23 assists, libero Cassidy Adams racked up 18 digs, and Malone accumulated 12 kills, 10 digs and two aces. Junior Megan Williams put down six kills, and sophomore Taylor Kruser hit the floor for eight digs.

“We want to give our seniors their due,” Grayson said. “They’re not going to have a state final to play in, but they’ve put on quite the show these past three years.

“This is their last bow.”