New London upended by Springville

WEST LIBERTY — New London volleyball had been playing some of its best volleyball this postseason.

With just one win standing in the way of that dream becoming a reality the No. 12 Tigers came ready to play Wednesday night against the No. 1 rated Springville Orioles.

Unfortunately for New London, maybe it wasn’t meant to be.

After stunting the Orioles in the first two sets, 29-27 and 25-23, Springville answered back with three straight, 25-20, 25-21 and 16-14 to steal the Tigers ticket to state.

New London came out with fire in the Class 1A Region 7 Championship matchup.

Both teams were neck and neck throughout the early stages of set number one, but the Tigers showed just how potent they can be.

Springville held an early 11-9 lead in the first set, but New London did not wavier as they followed with five straight points ending with a Natalie Burden kill to make it 14-11.

New London matched its largest leads of the set from then on out at 16-12 and 17-13, but the Orioles kept it close.

Springville tied it a 18-18, but New London quickly took a solid advantage again off a pair of kills from Camryn Lair and Sophie Malott. The Orioles followed with a hit out and the Tigers held a 21-18 lead.

The lead was short lived once again as Springville was able to tie it at 22-22 with two kills themselves and a pair of Tiger mistakes.

After tying twice more, Springville took back the lead at 26-25, but Burden hammered back-to-back kills to put New London up 27-26.

Springville tied it once more, but Sophie Malott answered with a kill and Morgan Jones delivered an ace to take a 1-0 lead.

“We were running more offense and taking them out of their system,” New London head coach Jackie Housman said of the Tigers early success in the final. “They played so well and worked all the way through.”

Set two was more of the same.

The Tigers jumped out to leads of 3-0, 6-3 and 10-6 (their largest of the set).

They could never shake the Orioles though.

At 12-12, Springville took the lead of a Tiger miss hit and they would never lose it until late.

After bringing the game to ties at 18-18 and 20-20, final got back on top with a Springville error.

New London would never lose it from then on out as Malott scored the final two points to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.

“We knew we had nothing to lose,” senior setter Elly Manning said of the Tigers mentality. “No one expected us to come into this game and win. Everyone was expecting us to get swept. We came in with nothing to lose and we played like it was our last game.”

Things were never the same following set two as Springville began to click.

New London led once again in the early moments of the set, with the largest at 3-2.

The Orioles followed with three straight points to make it 5-3 and they would never lose it.

Springville lead by as much as five at 14-9. The Tigers still showed fight, as they were able to cut it to one at 18-17 on a Tysann Gipple block.

They trailed just two late, 22-20, but the Orioles scored three straight.

In set four, Springville would never trail.

New London trailed by as much as 12-5, but once again they would answer.

The Tigers outscored the Orioles 11-6 from that point on to cut it to two, 18-16, but it wasn’t enough in the end as Springville followed with four straight and New London ran out of opportunities.

“If we would have been able to have the same success we saw in those first two sets, it would have been over in the third,” Housmann said. “I can’t say that we would have done anything different, because they worked hard the entire game.”

With the Springville win, it meant the match was send to a winner take all set five.

The final set of the night was just like the rest.

New London and Springville tied eight times throughout.

It was looking like the Orioles were going to pull away after going up 6-3, but the Tigers were able to battle back to tie it at 9-9.

The two teams would then trade blows tying at 10-10, 11-11, 12-12 and 14-14 after a pair of Malott kills.

With momentum on their side, the Tigers had a few opportunities late, but Springville capitalized on the offensive end and was able to finish it out with back-to-back kills to punch their ticket to state.

“They came out and gave it their all tonight,” Housman said. “I can’t be disappointed in them at all. I really cant. I had a really solid group of seniors on the team. They worked really hard from day one and they never stopped fighting. I’m really proud of them.”

With the loss, New London ends its season at 28-10.

“I’v never in the past three years seen our team fight like we did tonight,” Manning said. “I think Jackie has helped us gain our passion back to the game. Tonight we did it for her and all the people that have walked out on us the past three years. We lost hitters, coaches, passers, we just tried to prove everyone wrong. I think that hanging in their with the top team in the state really showed it.”