Holding a seemingly comfortable 20-13 lead, the Oconto Falls High School volleyball team was in prime shape to force a Game 4.
However, Seymour wanted to end the match in three games.
Oconto Falls had game point, 24-20, and everything looked good until Seymour tallied the next four points and deflated the Panthers players en route to a 27-25 victory, which closed out a 3-0 victory (25-17, 25-17, 27-25) for No. 2-seeded Seymour against No. 3-seeded Oconto Falls in a WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal Thursday night.
“Unfortunately, just too many mistakes,” Oconto Falls coach Rochell Otto said. “They just stepped up, and we didn’t get the job done. I think we missed two serves once we got to the 20s – you just can’t do that.”
Oconto Falls, which had 19 missed serves for the match, ended its season with a 21-17 record.
The Panthers were taken out of its offense most of the night by an aggressive Seymour (35-8) squad.
Outside hitter Emily Kilmer had a tough time registering kills over a solid, tall block. She had six combined in the first two games and seven in Game 3.
“That’s what we practiced all week was taking Kilmer out of the game and taking their hitters out of the game with our block,” Seymour hitter Emma Ellis said. “We did an amazing job with that, maybe the best we’ve done all season. I could not be prouder of these girls and the way they blocked up at the net.”
When Oconto Falls tried to swing it around to other players, it didn’t have much success.
“Usually we can go right side or whatever,” Otto said. “We just weren’t getting the job done in other places, so it allowed them to cheat.”
Shelby Coron added six kills for Oconto Falls.
Seymour middle hitter Jaclyn Zahn was strong at the net and registered eight block kills. The Thunder’s McKenzie Hintz added five assisted blocks. Kylie Schuettpelz had four assisted blocks.
It took until the third game before Oconto Falls’ offense started to click. By that point, the Panthers were down 2-0 and on the brink of elimination.
“I still had faith, believe it or not, just because I knew we weren’t playing our game,” Otto said. “I knew if we got playing the way we can be, it would be different.”
Despite early match jitters, Oconto Falls led 8-5 in Game 1. Seymour took its first lead at 10-9 and never looked back in a 25-17 victory.
In Game 2, Seymour led wire-to-wire. Oconto Falls got within one, 16-15, but the Thunder scored nine of the last 11 points, and capped a 25-17 victory with a block kill by Zahn and Ellis.
After losing the first two games, Otto was waiting for her girls to play their style of volleyball.
“We just needed to play better as a team, as a group,” Otto said. “We just weren’t moving, we weren’t getting into positions. We were all over the place. We had to just minimize the mistakes. We had free balls that weren’t getting put over.”
Down 5-2 early, Oconto Falls rebounded to take a 17-11 advantage after three Kilmer kills. The Panthers’ lead ballooned to 20-13 before Trautmann called a timeout to regroup. Seymour scored the next three points and Otto burned a timeout.
Oconto Falls was up 23-18 when Zahn registered a kill and a block to make it 23-20. Oconto Falls got the next point to sit at game point, 24-20. Seymour got a side out and Zahn served four straight times to give the Thunder a 25-24 lead. A Kilmer kill tied the score and Seymour responded with the final two points. Hintz and Justine Meltz shared a block kill to end the match.
Kilmer finished the match with 13 digs and two aces. Alyssa Nelson added 11 digs and two aces. Mikaela Thomson had a team-high 20 assists.
“I just told them, ‘Jitters are done. Just play your game,’” Otto said. “You know what, they stepped in and started having some nice kills, and unfortunately we just fell apart.”
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