Henry rebounds to beat Woodland in key Tri-County match

HENRY – Coming into Thursday’s match against Woodland, the Henry-Senachwine girls volleyball team knew its importance in terms of seeding for the Tri-County Conference Tournament.

After dropping the first set, the Mallards regrouped and only trailed once over the final two sets to win 17-25, 25-14, 25-20.

“I think it was a really good match,” Henry junior Harper Schrock said. “This was one of the best matches we could have played. It determined conference seeding. We are both battling for second going into the Tri-County [Tournament]. On our home court, it felt really good to win.”

The conference tournament seeding will come out early next week, and the tournament begins Oct. 14 at Marquette.

“It’s super big,” Henry senior Kaitlyn Anderson said. “We played Seneca our first [conference match] of the season, and we lost, but it was super close. We weren’t our best yet. We knew we needed this win to get a good seeding, and we’re ready to take everybody in the Tri-County.”

The Mallards started strong as senior Lauren Harbison fired an ace on the match’s first point and added another to cap a 4-0 opening run.

The Warriors, however, quickly got back in it.

A block by senior Malyana Pitte and junior Layna Wilcoxsen tied it, and an ace by senior Gabby Jacobs gave Woodland the lead.

The Warriors (13-7, 4-1 TCC) took control on four straight kills by Pitte to go up 13-6. Woodland led by at least six points the rest of the way.

“I thought we played pretty well,” Woodland coach Michelle Pitte said. “I feel like we started off really great. We were strong everywhere we needed to be. We were hitting the ball. We were in the coverage. Then we got in our own heads. We started not moving on from the point. We started focusing on what we just messed up on instead of celebrating the good and moving on from the bad.”

Henry coach Rita Self said she reminded her team of the stakes after the first set.

The Mallards responded.

Henry trailed 1-0 but never again as sophomore Brynna Anderson slammed down a kill to give the Mallards the lead for good at 4-3.

Junior Rachel Eckert then rattled off seven straight points to push Henry’s lead to 11-3.

Kaitlyn Anderson put down two kills during the stretch, while Schrock and Brynna Anderson each had one and Eckert served an ace.

“We knew we had it in us to play better than we did the first set,” Kaitlyn Anderson said. “We knew we were going to take the second set. We brought the energy up.

“Our defense wasn’t as good as it could be [in the first set]. We weren’t being as scrappy. We weren’t swinging. That’s what our coach kept saying. It really just takes energy between the girls to bring all of it up. So we just knew we needed to change our mindsets and then everything else would follow.”

The Mallards took control early in the third set, as well, as Harbison served an ace and Schrock put down two kills, including a kill on a free ball, to give Henry a 4-0 lead.

Henry led start to finish in the decisive third set, extending the lead to as many as eight before the Warriors made a late surge with an ace by freshman Addy Ewing and a block and kill from sophomore Grace Longmore to pull within 24-20, but a Woodland kill attempt went long to end the match.

“We weren’t playing how we always have been [in the first set],” Schrock said. “We needed confidence and energy. Tipping was not it. We just had to figure out how to swing, and we found the court.”

Schrock finished with nine kills, five digs and an ace for Henry (18-4, 5-1 TCC); Kaitlyn Anderson had 19 digs, seven kills and an ace; Brynna Anderson had eight digs, five kills and an ace; and Harbison contributed 18 assists, 12 digs, 11 points, three aces and four kills.

“I wouldn’t say it was our best game,” Self said. “One of our goals for the season is to be more efficient. We have a lot of girls who can hit and when we’re all on, we play really well and can compete against some really good teams. When we’re not, we can scrape by sometimes with playing some scrappy defense or serving well.

“I’d say our serving stepped up tonight. We had some girls jump serve tonight who’ve never jump served just to mix it up. I’d rather play hard and lose than go out tipping and serving easy. So I told them we need to serve aggressively and we need to hit the ball.”

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Members of the Henry-Senachwine volleyball team react after defeating Woodland on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024 at Henry-Senachwine High School. (Scott Anderson)