Oh Henry! Mallards beat St. Bede for first regional championship in 14 years

PERU – Kaitlyn Anderson served up an ace to send Henry-Senachwine out to a 23-19 lead in the second set of Thursday’s Class 1A St. Bede Regional final.

Then, in a bold move, Henry coach Rita Self subbed out Anderson for junior libero Taylor Frawley.

It worked like a charm as Frawley followed up with another ace and served the Mallards out to the regional championship over the host Bruins 25-23, 25-19.

“I knew if we could serve short that it would be a couple of big points for us just to finish it off. And Kaitlyn is not a short server,” Self said. “I just didn’t want to risk throwing the ball out of bounds and switching the tables again and giving them an opportunity to try to do something.”

It was the 200th career win for Self and the Mallards’ first regional championship since 2010.

“They had a lot of unfinished business from last year. We made it to the regional finals against Annawan and didn’t finish. This year, we had two goals. We wanted to finish the championship games (Tri-County tournament/regionals) that we were in last year. This year, so far, we’re two for two. I know we’re excited to go even farther.”

The team wrote down goals at the beginning of season and winning regionals topped the list.

“This was a big one for us. So it meant a lot,” Anderson said. “We’ve been in this championship my sophomore year in this gym and my junior year, so coming back my senior year means a lot.”

“This is what we’ve wanted. This is hopefully just the beginning for us. This has been our goal to win regionals and from there we move on,” Henry senior Lauren Harbison said. “They beat us in the regular season, so it was nice to win when it mattered. My sophomore year, they beat us in regionals, so it was nice to come back.”

The Mallards (28-7) will be bringing what they call the “Revenge Tour” to the Williamsfield Sectional at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Brimfield, which beat Monmouth United 25-12, 25-23 at the Abingdon Regional, edged Henry in three sets in the Midland Tournament 25-17, 17-25, 15-13 on Sept. 14.

“We call it the ‘Revenge Tour’ because along the way we’re playing teams who beat us earlier in the season. We’re coming back for them basically,” Anderson said.

“Unfinished business for the whole year. But now it’s kind of a revenge tour. Seeing teams we lost to in the regular season, but now beating them in the final days, Seneca and now St. Bede,” Self said. “And then the next one hopefully will be Brimfield. It will be nice to see them again.”

St. Bede (18-14) had a 6-1 run to take a 14-10 lead in the second set, including an ace by senior Quinn McClain and a kill by junior Lily Bosnich.

Harper Schrock and Brynna Anderson each had a pair of kills, Kaitlyn Anderson had a perfectly placed tip, and Rachel Eckert had an ace to give Henry a 17-15 lead.

A pair of aces by Brynna Anderson gave the Mallards a 21-18 lead, and Kaitlyn Anderson followed a net violation by St. Bede with an ace serve to run their advantage to 23-19.

Then Self subbed in Frawley, who served the Mallards on to victory with the final two points.

“Taylor had kind of lost her serving rotation because of an injury we had with our middles,” Self said. “She used to serve a lot for us. We have so many strong servers that bumped her out of her spot. Tonight, it was great to get her back at the end of the game and finish it off.”

Kaitlyn Anderson was happy to let Frawley serve out the championship.

“I trust my teammates. Whatever my coach says, I believe in her, and it worked,” she said. “I got an ace and then Taylor got an ace. It was awesome.”

Kaitlyn Anderson led the Mallards with eight kills, Schrock had seven kills and Brooklynn Thompson (eight points) and Brynna Anderson each had four kills. Also for Henry, Harbison had 18 assists and Frawley popped up 16 digs.

The Bruins led once early in the first game at 3-2, but played catch-up most of the opener, forcing ties at 6-6 and 12-12.

A five-point Henry run made it 17-12. Ava Balestri and Ashlyn Ehm had blocks and Nell Potthoff hit for a kill as the Bruins pulled within 17-16.

St. Bede managed to tie Henry at 22-22 on an Mallards’ error and again at 23-23 on a net serve.

The Mallards, however, closed out the opener with the final two points for the 25-23 win.

Potthoff had three kills and two aces for the Bruins.

St. Bede coach Kaitlyn Edgcomb said the Bruins came in confident after having defeated the Mallards at the home just three weeks ago.

“I knew coming in to it tonight, it wasn’t going to be easy,” she said. “The girls definitely gave it their all. We played to the best of our ability, and Henry just came out on top. I told the girls things like this happen. It’s a good learning experience and hopefully next year the girls coming back will have the fire to get this far.”