Lady Hawks rally to advance in regionals

NEVER GAVE UP

“We knew we could do it. We wanted this, and that’s why we didn’t give up. We were down at several points. We just never gave up.”

Taylor Jordan, Central Lee middlehitter

MEDIAPOLIS — The first set got away from Central Lee.
The next three didn’t, and the Hawks are moving on in the Class 3A Region 2 bracket.
Central Lee eliminated Mediapolis 17-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-22 in Tuesday’s quarterfinal at Vernon “Bud” McLearn Gymnasium.
The Hawks (14-15) advanced to play at No. 2 Davenport Assumption (23-7) in a semifinal match.
“This is huge, especially for our seniors, because they haven’t made it past the first round before,” Central Lee coach Amy Cook said. “So it’s a huge accomplishment for us. Any time you’re the underdog and you can come out on top, it feels pretty good.”
“Oh my gosh, we wanted this so bad,” said senior middle hitter Taylor Jones. “We knew we could do it. We wanted this, and that’s why we didn’t give up. We were down at several points. We just never gave up.”
“I feel like it means so much because we’ve never made it past the first round, and it shows all of our hard work is paying off,” senior libero Jayden Mueller said.
How the Hawks bounced back after the opening set proved to be the difference. Central Lee had a 15-12 lead before Mediapolis (16-17) scored 12 of the next 13 points.
“We have to learn how to lock in earlier and not get frazzled,” Cook said. “We had the game plan coming in, we knew what we needed to do, which just needed to lock in and trust the process.”
The Hawks started the second set with a 7-1 run, setting the tone for the rest of the match.
“I feel like our energy was more up than it was at the start,” Mueller said. “We started having less errors, and any points they got were on their own kills, not on our mistakes.”
“We just started playing amazing,” Jones said. “The passes were there, the sets were there, we started connecting on our hits. We just played a lot better.”
“We started putting the ball in spots, rather than just swinging to see where it could go,” Cook said. “We were swinging with purpose, and that made a difference. Plus, there was so much energy from our student section, from our parents, from the bench. I think we fed off that."
Central Lee led 24-15 at one point in the second set before the Bullettes rallied with a 5-0 run, but the Hawks were able to force one more error out of Mediapolis to finish the set.
The biggest moment for the Hawks came in the third set. They were down 21-19 before a tip from Nora Lampe and a block from Kenna Sandoval tied the match. That started the winning 6-0 run that ended with kills from Sandoval and Jones.
Central Lee built a 14-8 lead in the third set before Mediapolis rallied to turn the set into a roller coaster. The Hawks led 23-22 when Mueller came up with a dig that couldn’t be returned by the Bullettes, and then a Mediapolis hitting error clinched the win and sent the Hawks into a celebration that lasted down the long hallway to their locker room.
“I feel like everyone out there put their all into this one,” Cook said. “I thought this was a great team win. We fought hard tonight, and we earned this.”