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St. Henry's Ellie Fullenkamp (5) and Chloe Gels (1) go up to block a shot by Marion Pleasant's Kamryn Cocherl in the Division III regional semifinals at Liberty-Benton High School on Thursday.
BENTON RIDGE - St. Henry's serving flustered Marion Pleasant almost from the start, and the Redskins rode it all the way to the regional final.
The Redskins settled down after a few early errors and overcame some stumbles in the third set for a 25-12, 25-8, 25-17 victory in the Division III regional semifinals at Liberty-Benton High School on Thursday.
St. Henry (23-3) will take on Huron at 2 p.m. Saturday at Liberty-Benton with a chance to make its 16th state tournament appearance. Huron beat Fairview 25-22, 25-13, 25-14 in the nightcap.
"They were a little nervous to begin with," St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck said. "They made a few too many errors at the beginning of game one, but then we settled down and started playing our game, serving aggressively and getting them out of system, getting everyone involved in the offense. When we did that, they couldn't quite keep up with us blocking-wise. We had a lot of one-on-ones, which is what we were going for."
Marion Pleasant (18-9) set the pace early in the first set after St. Henry missed two serves long and hit a ball into the net as Marion Pleasant went up 5-3.
A serve out by the Spartans sent Chloe Gels back to the line for a four-point run, with Molly Wendel blocking a shot to tie the set at five and two Spartan errors putting the Redskins up for good. Kenzley Davis got a kill through the block to cut the deficit to one, but Morgan Baumer answered with a shot inside the back line.
St. Henry's Karlee Buschur rears back for a shot against the Spartans.
Lauren Thieman and Rya Buschur each added four-point service runs as the Redskins started to open up the lead. Karlee Buschur and Wendel alternated kills to stretch the lead to 10 and Lydia Werling served up six points, including an ace, to get the Redskins to set point.
Werling's last serve went long, but Cocherl's serve went out to close it out.
St. Henry committed six service errors in the first set, but forced Marion Pleasant into eight errors off the serve receive and got two aces. The rest of the way, the Redskins had five aces and 15 more points off the serve and committed just five service errors.
"We have some errors, that gets kind of frustrating sometimes, but when we do get it in, they are out of system a lot," Rosenbeck said. "That benefits our defense, and then our offense in return."
St. Henry's Morgan Baumer goes up for a shot against the Spartans on Thursday. Baumer served up four aces and got three kills.
Set two was all St. Henry, and the Redskins' serves had the Spartans scrambling time and again. Morgan Baumer fired back-to-back aces in an opening eight-point run, and Rya Buschur added an ace in a long run of her own to stretch the lead to 15-1.
Sydney Smith notched an ace for Marion Pleasant and later got a kill with St. Henry at set point. Gels and Baumer made diving digs to save the next point, and Gels finished it with a kill.
In the third, Baumer got an ace inside the back line as the Redskins opened on a 4-0 run, but Marion Pleasant hung around, and Maddie Ervin serving an ace in a three-point run that got the Spartans within two at 7-5. Werling stopped the short run with a kill, and after Cocherl got a sideout, her serve went over the end line and Gels answered with a three-point run to give St. Henry a cushion.
The Spartans continued battling, with Cocherl racking up five kills in the final set after being limited to a single block in the first two.
"With our scouting, we knew No. 8 (Cocherl) was one of their go-to players, so we were really focusing on her and getting blocks up on her," Rosenbeck said. "She's a great player, but I think we were able to slow her down a lot. She still got a few by us, but I think we slowed her up, and that was their main offense."
Thieman got an ace past a diving Smith and Rya Buschur added a three-point run to stretch the lead to 10, but in the final stretch, Redskin errors gave the Spartans a chance.
After three errors over the span of four points cut the lead to six at 22-16, Rosenbeck called timeout to settle her team. Karlee Buschur got a block on the next point, and Fullenkamp fired a kill to the right line to send Thieman to the line for match point.
The receive drifted right and carried libero Madi Pendleton over the line to set, and the shot went straight into the net to finish it off.
"We just got kind of lackadaisical with how we were playing," Rosenbeck said. "I think we had seven errors in a row at one time. So, obviously, we need to clean that up before we move on this Saturday."
Gels led the Redskins with nine kills and Fullenkamp, Wendel, Werling and Karlee Buschur each recorded five. Werling added 25 assists and four blocks and Rya Buschur had 10 digs. Baumer notched four aces.
