Danville bears down on Pekin

PACKWOOD - The Pekin volleyball season came to an end Tuesday and for four seniors, a high school career came to an end.

'I am really proud of my seniors,” Pekin head coach Sara Lane said of Kylie Noel, Kylie Davis, Eden Greiner and Kaylee Ancell. 'All four did a great job. I thought they left it all out there on the floor.”

Stopping a team when it goes on a run is the key to advancing in the postseason. The Danville-Pekin match was a game of runs and the Danville runs lasted longer than Pekin runs, resulting in 3-0 sweep of the Panthers in the opening round of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union 2019 Class 2A postseason.

Pekin season ends with a record of 11-18 record while Danville advances with an 8-17 mark to play No. 2 Mediapolis (39-1) Monday.

'I think our chemistry was off,” Lane said. 'There are many things that contribute to that, but I think it may just have been postseason angst.”

Isabella Smith was a force for Danville.

'She is their glue, and we didn't have that gel working for us,” Lane said. 'They utilized her well.”

The match started with a 5-2 deficit for the Panthers but Davis went on a run serving for an 11-5 lead. Danville rallied to take an 18-16 lead, but the Panthers tied it at 18 before giving up a run to lose 25-18.

'Danville stopped our runs better than we stopped theirs, so kudos to them and their girls,” Lane said. 'I don't think there was one point in the match where the momentum changed.”

The second set was tied at 7, 8, 9 and 10 before the Bears pulled out to a 20-14 advantage, sparking a timeout from Pekin. It didn't slow the Bears down as Smith connected on a kill to get to set point and a hitting error resulted in a 25-16 win.

'Danville played a great game,” Lane said. 'They had some great hits from their middles and outsides. We got some touches on them, but they seemed to fall through our defense.”

The Bears used the second set momentum to take an 8-0 lead in the third set. Taylor Gambell got a block to end the run and Lane called timeout down 16-5.

'I asked them what they wanted to prove to themselves and everybody that they can do,” Lane said. 'It was unanimous. We want to be aggressive. We want to take control. We just weren't able to sustain it.”

A block by Allison Bainbridge, a back row kill from Greiner, then a kill from Gambell and it was only a 17-13 deficit, which resulted in a Danville timeout. The Bears went on to a 25-17 win.

'On our defense, they were hitting it where we weren't and we were a half step late reacting to that,” Lane said. 'That can be the difference of winning and losing is that half step.”