Volleyball: Newman rolls early, rallies late to earn trip to state

LANARK – The Newman Comets are hitting their stride at the perfect time.

Since finding a spark midway through the second set of the regional final, the Comets haven’t dropped a set – and have now ridden that momentum all the way to Redbird Arena.

Newman jumped out to a huge lead in the first set, then rallied from an almost equally large deficit in the second set Friday night in the Class 1A Eastland Supersectional on its way to a 25-19, 27-25 victory over Augusta Southeastern.

The win sends the Comets (29-7-1) to the state tournament for the first time in program history, and left the players shaking their heads in disbelief at what they’ve accomplished.

“A lot of us are over the moon right now,” junior hitter Jess Johns said. “From where we started in the season and having tough losses like against Dixon and Oregon, and being at those low points, it’s definitely a very good feeling to be at the top.”

“I’m so excited and thrilled with the way we played,” junior middle Kennedy Rowzee added. “Our goal originally was just to get past regionals, and we’ve really exceeded that limit. We’re just so excited to go to state.”

Newman will face a familiar foe in the semifinals: Freeport Aquin, which defeated Grant Park 25-19, 25-11 to win the Harvest Christian Academy Supersectional. Aquin defeated the Comets in straight sets in the semifinals of the Linda Ludwig Tournament in Lanark on Oct. 15.

Coincidentally, Newman was in the very same gym Friday night to pick up the biggest win in program history.

The Comets couldn’t have scripted a better start, sprinting out to an 11-1 lead to open the first set. Rowzee had three kills and a block in that run, Johns added a pair of spikes, and Sam Ackman served three aces as Newman set the tone from the get-go.

“We were getting excited and kind of just shaking our nerves off in the beginning, then that long serving start helped so much,” senior setter Katie Grennan said. “Our nerves completely went away, we had energy, and we played like we knew we could.”

Southeastern slowly chipped away, but Newman had the answer to stop every run. Johns had two kills in a three-point span to give the Comets a 13-5 lead, then Grennan smacked a kill to make it 16-7. The Suns got as close as 17-16 on a Newman net violation, but were then called for an illegal hit before Rowzee smoked a kill, Grennan served an ace, and Johns wrapped a pair of back-row kills around another Rowzee slam to make it 22-16.

Molly Olson then had a kill to keep Southeastern at bay, and Johns spiked a kill to finish out the set.

“I think it definitely was a big help to start off hot, because it created the lead, and once we got the lead, even if we had a couple points where we started getting down a little bit, we knew that we still had that lead to work with,” Johns said. “I think that was really beneficial, especially with it being the first game, and that kind of got us settled in.”

The Comets led 4-2 to start the second set on an Olson dig that landed in the Suns’ court, then a kill by Rowzee and back-to-back slams by Johns. But Southeastern started to find its groove, as setter Abigail Shaffer rattled off five straight points – the final one an ace – to take control.

Johns had back-to-back kills to cut the deficit to 9-7, but kills by Abbey McMillen and Kenzie Griswold and an ace by Savannah Ramsey stretched the margin to 14-8. Rowzee and Makenzie Duhon had kills, but they were answered by a kill by Griswold and back-to-back slams by Amanda Stephens to put the Suns in front 19-10.

In the huddle, the Comets calmed each other down and talked about taking small steps to start the comeback.

“All we were saying out there on the court was win one point, then win the next, and then the next,” Grennan said. “It’s very difficult to get that in your head, but we ended up pulling through.”

“Our main thing is to keep the energy up, keep the attitude up, and I think we really executed that today,” Ackman said. “Being down by nine points, we really emphasized that we needed to keep our energy up, and that’s what we did – and we came back to win.”

Johns had a kill, but it was answered by a Shaffer kill on the second touch to make it 20-11. But another Johns kill ignited the Newman run, and three hitting errors and a net violation by Southeastern in the next four points brought the Comets back within 20-16 before another Johns kill and an Olson ace made it 20-18.

“We realized that a lot of errors were on tipping, not communicating, just on little things like not going at the ball,” Johns said. “We got one or two kills and that was kind of like a wake-up call, ‘Oh my gosh, that works!’ We just hit the ball and didn’t make the errors, and put the pressure back on them.”

After a Stephens kill, the teams traded hitting errors and service errors to get to 23-20. Rowzee then announced her return to the front row with back-to-back kills, and a double-hit violation on Southeastern tied the set 23-23.

A Newman serve out of bounds gave Southeastern the lead back, but Rowzee spiked a kill to tie it at 24. Shaffer placed a dump shot into the middle of the Comet defense for a 25-24 Southeastern lead, but Johns answered with a kill from the back row, then rotated to the front row and slammed two more to finish off the comeback.

“Really, just focusing on playing point by point, and realizing that the game’s not over,” Rowzee said of the strategy. “We kind of started slow in the second set, but just playing one point at a time, coming back and finishing that game was just amazing. We really all are just working together, and it’s just coming together really nicely.”

“I really think it was our fans,” Grennan added about a key to the comeback. “They really brought the energy back up to us, and I think we just knew we weren’t just playing for ourselves in that moment, we were playing for everyone.”

Serving was a big factor for Newman all night. The Comets had five aces and just four service errors in the match, and only one in the second set to aid the comeback.

“In our practices, we really focus on our serves and our serve-receive – we probably spend 45 minutes on just serving – and I think our serving is what gives us our momentum to better the ball and put the ball away,” Ackman said. “And when that all comes together, we all work very well together.

“I think that was really huge, and that’s what kind of gave us the confidence to go into that set and be aggressive from the start.”

Johns led the Comets with 15 kills and 14 digs, while Rowzee had 10 kills, six digs and 1.5 blocks, and Grennan finished with 16 assists, six points and four digs. Olson added nine assists, five digs, six points and two kills, Ackman served nine points and three aces to go with five digs, and Addison Foster chipped in 10 digs.

Shaffer finished with 17 assists, eight points, three kills and two aces for Southeastern, the Class 1A state runner-up last year. Stephens had nine kills, Griswold spiked five kills, and McMillen had four kills for the Suns. Summer Ramsey had two kills, and Savannah Ramsey served seven points and an ace.

“We’re really upset right now, but we’ll look back at this eventually and think it was one we could’ve got, and we’ll look fondly on the season and the last two years, especially with the seniors that we’re losing,” Southeastern coach Tim Kerr said. “Obviously our effort was there the whole night, we’ll never fault that, and we went down swinging and went down to a nice team that kind of got hot tonight.”

The next stop for Newman: Redbird Arena in Normal for the 1A state tournament on Friday morning at 9 a.m.

“It’s going to be different, for sure, but we’re really excited for it,” Grennan said.