Copyright Shaw Local Enewspapers
The Sterling Newman volleyball team didn’t care about the seeds at the Class 2A Princeton Regional. All they cared about was winning. The Comets stunned heavily favored and No. 2 seed Sherrard 25-18, 9-25, 26-24 in Tuesday’s regional semifinals. “We had confidence that we could do it. We’ve been improving the whole second half of the season. We were like, the seeds didn’t matter,” Newman coach Debbi Kelly said. “We just got to keep climbing and once regionals start its a new season for everyone, Doesn’t matter what your record was. It’s just showing them what we’ve done.” No. 3 and host Princeton took care of business in the nightcap on its home court, defeating Kewanee, the No. 6 seed for the third time this season, 25-22, 25-14. Thursday’s title match between Princeton and Newman will be the third meeting between the Three Rivers East rivals. The Tigresses (21-13-1) took the early-season match at Prouty Gym with the Comets (18-18) winning later on their home court. “We’re excited. It’s always fun to be in the finals of the regional anytime. When you’re not expected to be there, it’s kind of nice being the underdog,” Kelly said. Both Princeton and Newman seek their first regional titles since 2022 with the Comets coming in Class 1A. “A lot of us are seniors so this is our last time playing. We’re really excited to get after it and win another regional,” Princeton senior setter Makayla Hecht said. “They’ll be a tough team to beat, but I think we’ve got it. We’ll have some momentum going into it.” “That’s our goal. It’s right there now. We’ve just got to go get it,” Princeton coach Andy Puck said. “It’s always fun to obtain to your goals and we’re still hungry. Newman’s going to be a tough out and we knew that. Debbi Kelly and I have had our battles over the years and Thursday night should be fun.” Princeton def. Kewanee 25-22, 25-14 The Boilers pushed the Tigresses in the opening set, using a 6-1 run to close to 17-16 and got within one again at 19-18. Princeton managed to regroup for a 22-18 lead only to have the Boilers score four straight to it up at 22. Puck took a time out and Kewanee’s next serve sailed long for the Tigresses side out. Senior striker Caroline Keutzer ended the opener 25-22 with a kill. The Tigresses took an early 6-2 lead in Game 2 on an Ava Kyle ace and led 11-8 on a Keutzer kill. Senior setter Makayla Hecht ripped off seven straight points, including an ace and kills by Kathy Maciczak and Keutzer for a 16-6 Princeton lead. “Just hard serves going straight down trying to put them into service pressure,” Hecht said. The closest Kewanee (16-16-1) would get was nine points at 23-14 with Keutzer again ending the set with a kill to send the Tigresses to Thursday’s finals. “We played some of our best volleyball all year tonight,” Puck said. “You know me, I’m really happy because we executed what we worked on in practice. Two things we talked about coming in was to be aggressive at the service line and No. 2 was really focusing on serve receive. “If you can take care of those two things in the postseason it eliminated a lot of errors and it also builds a lot of confidence.” Maciczak led Princeton with nine kills with Keutzer adding seven and Keely Lawson six. Hecht had 23 assists with nine points and two aces while Camryn Driscoll had 12 digs and Davis 10 points. Newman def. Sherrard 25-18, 9-25, 26-24 Kelly said the Comets’ win in the first game really gave her team an early confidence boost against the favored Tigers. “Amaya Gomez did a great job at the line serving to really spread the gap. I think that built the girls’ confidence,” Kelly said. “Second game obviously we were a little bit shell shocked. We just kept telling the girls, just keep working through it. Gain momentum and we’ve just got to close the gap and we’ll get to the third game.” And that’s exactly what they did, pushing through some anxious moments which saw Sherrard rally from four down to tie the third set at 24 before the Comets finished off the match. Lauren McClain led the Comets with 10 kills and eight digs, Bella Lanning and Ruby Burger had eight kills, Gisselle Martin had six kills and six 6 digs, Brooklyn Smith had 32 assists and five digs and Gomez served for 10 points.
