Volleyball: Steamers push Pirates, but come up short in sectional semifinal

POLO – A late Fulton rally pushed defending Class 1A state champion Galena to the brink of a third set in Tuesday’s 1A Polo Sectional semifinal.

But facing set point, the Pirates scored three straight to end the Steamers’ season and move on to the title match with a 25-16, 27-25 victory.

[ Volleyball photos from Fulton vs. Galena in 1A sectional semifinal ]

“We’ve definitely been in tight games in pressure situations multiple times, so I think we’re really good at being able to stay up and just know that when the game’s tight, we just have to play our game and we’ll be fine,” Galena senior hitter Gracie Furlong said.

“We really come out when we need to,” junior middle Mya McCoy added. “I feel like we execute really well. Coach calls a timeout to try to get us to calm down, give us a break, and we kind of regroup and go out there and do our thing.”

Furlong (10 kills) and McCoy (7 kills, 4 blocks, 2 aces) helped Galena (34-3) control the net for most of the match, including a methodical, workmanlike opening set where the Pirates just kept pulling away.

With the same thing happening early in the second set, Fulton (26-10-1) flipped a switch. Senior setter Miraya Pessman’s dump kill kicked off a 6-0 run, as junior Jada Schaver served a pair of aces and freshman middle Chloe Wilkin slammed a kill and stuffed a block to turn a 7-2 deficit into an 8-7 lead.

“We had to hit at them, and we knew that,” Pessman said. “In the first set, we just weren’t getting enough passes and sets to truly hit the ball at them, kill the ball and get them out of system. They were able to get it to Gracie on the outside. So that second set, we really just hammered the ball a lot more.”

“When our hitters step up, we pound the ball and we know what’s up,” senior libero Resse Germann said. “I don’t know how else to explain it; we know we have to go, so we attack and go hard and give it our all.”

Germann and the back row also played a part in the Steamers’ surge, digging up shots by Furlong, McCoy and Kendra Bauer to allow Fulton’s offense to get those stronger swings – which, in turn, helped keep the Pirates out of system.

“We just know how to play defense, that’s a strong suit for us,” said Germann, whose 16 digs accounted for half of Fulton’s total. “Without the effort of us diving all over and trying to get the ball up every time, we can’t hit the ball and we can’t score points. It puts a lot of pressure on the passers to just try to get the ball up, but with [Furlong] and their middles hitting it so hard and so fast, the thing you’ve got to do is trust your game and just pray you’ll get the dig up.”

A Furlong kill and a Bauer block put Galena up 10-8, then after a Wilkin spike, three straight Fulton errors gave the Pirates a 13-9 lead. Kills by Leah Heller and Furlong bookended a pair of blocks by McCoy, then Furlong’s kill and McCoy’s ace answered a kill by Fulton’s Kylie Smither for a 20-13 Galena lead.

“I think it helped a lot to spread it around,” Furlong said of the Pirates’ balanced attack. “Teams will obviously camp on the outside to block me, and having Mya and Kendra out there to be able to swing and put away the ball is big for us.”

“I feel like everybody knows Gracie is the big star here,” McCoy said, “and so I feel like it helps our team knowing that we can rely on her, but we also have other people who can execute swings and finish the ball strong as well.”

A Pessman ace and a Wilkin block cut the Fulton deficit to 20-15, then a Wilkin kill was instead ruled a Bauer block, giving Galena a 21-16 lead instead of bringing the Steamers within 20-17.

But Fulton didn’t let that deter its attack. Two kills and a block by Wilkin made it 21-19, forcing a Galena timeout.

“We’re really young in the front row, with a lot of underclassmen at the net – but they didn’t show as underclassmen today. We all showed as one team today, and that was great to see,” Germann said. “We just started off slow the first set, then the second set, we knew what we needed to do, and I think we just followed that plan better.”

A Furlong kill and consecutive Fulton errors put the Pirates at match point, 24-19, but the Steamers made one last surge. A Wilkin block ignited a 6-0 run that put the Steamers up 25-24; Smither had a pair of kills and Germann served an ace during that stretch, and the defense was on point, digging up everything Galena threw at it.

“Especially with a team like that, it takes a second to adjust to their hitters,” Pessman added. “We just had to get in the mindset to dig up every single ball that we possibly could.”

But senior setter Abigail Merritt dumped a second-touch kill to tie the set 25-25, then a Fulton net violation put Galena back at match point, and McCoy slammed a kill to finish it off.

Merritt dished 20 assists, Heller added three kills, Jayme Frank served three aces, and Bauer chipped in two kills and two blocks for the Pirates, who will face Stockton in Thursday’s sectional final. The Blackhawks bounced back from a first-set loss to defeat Newark 22-25, 25-17, 25-23 in Tuesday’s second semifinal.

Wilkin had eight kills and six blocks, Smither spiked seven kills to go with a block, and Pessman stuffed the stat sheet with eight assists, four kills, four digs and an ace for Fulton. Brianne Brennan added eight aces and three digs, and Schaver served a match-high eight points, including three aces.

Despite the loss, the Steamers were immensely proud of their season, and both Pessman and Germann said their final year was something special that they’ll never forget.

“It’s been so good, and I wouldn’t want to go out with any other team,” Germann said. “We’re a family – we’re more of a family than we are a team. We love each other, we know what we’re feeling, we’re always there for each other. We just have fun playing out there together.”

“It was a family, honestly, it was a God-given family,” Pessman added. “I can’t thank God enough for that team and that coach that I was given for these four years. I wouldn’t trade it for the world, win or loss tonight.”