Pekin rallies back to clip Washington

WASHINGTON ? Senior Jessica Deutsch and the Pekin volleyball team could have given up. The Panthers trailed two-games-to-one at Class 3A Washington, and the Demons had all the momentum.

But Deutsch and the Panthers ratcheted up the intensity and won the next two games to take Monday?s non-conference match in five games. Pekin won by scores of 25-16, 17-25, 21-25, 25-22 and 15-11.

?We couldn?t get down on ourselves,? Deutsch said. ?That?s not who our team is. We stay strong the whole time.?

Pekin (13-12) got a big dose of Jonte Thornton in the second and third games. Washington?s outside hitter tallied nine kills in those two games, and the Panthers did little to slow her down. Pekin head coach Jina Heisdorffer addressed that in the huddle before the fourth game.

?We just needed to stay aggressive,? Heisdorffer said. ?We needed to do a better job of blocking the Thornton girl. We gave her some free shots, and she would have just killed us all night long if we would have kept giving her free shots. I thought we did a better job of getting some blocks and slowing her down the next two games.?

After a kill by senior Lucy Libe, Washington (5-15) led the fourth game 12-9. But junior Kathleen Kennedy?s serve sailed long, and the Panthers began to take control from there. Seniors Erin Mosinski and Alex Barnhart both had a pair of kills as Pekin went on a 7-1 run to take a 16-13 lead.

Washington, which lost the fourth game by three points, had six serving errors in the set.

?Every girl missed at least two serves tonight, and you can?t do that,? Washington head coach Jeff Spenner said. ?You can probably get away with two girls doing that, maybe three, but not all six girls. We had 16 missed serves tonight total, and that?s a lot of points to give a team.?

Serving also cost the Demons in the fifth game. After Libe spiked down a kill to tie the game 7-7, the next serve sailed long. Then, after Pekin senior Jamie Sterling got a kill, Mosinski blocked Libe for a point and deflated the Demons.

From there, the Panthers went on to take the fifth game 15-11. Deutsch was pleased her team could win on the road against a bigger school.

?Coach said to us, ?Hey, let?s go in with a positive attitude. It?s a bigger school, but we can do this. We have a chance.? And we did it. It?s amazing.?

Pekin fell behind 11-4 in the opening game, but then began to climb back. After a Demon hitting error, miscommunication led to another Pekin point, tying the game at 13. The Panthers then added five more points to open up an 18-13 lead.

?We were up early, and then all of a sudden the communication dropped and we didn?t really call for the ball,? Spenner said. ?A lot of balls landed in the court that we didn?t even make an adjustment for.?

But after losing the first game 25-16, the Demons rebounded in the second game. Holding a narrow 16-14 lead, Thornton came up with three straight kills, and senior Caitlin Fishback had one of her four aces on the night. The Demons went on to even the match with a 25-17 win.

Pekin led the third game 15-14, but the Panthers had hitting errors on seven of the next eight points to give the Demons control. Washington won the third game 25-21, and seemed to have control of the match.

?Then we kind of just let down again,? Spenner said. ?If you look at the match, we either played really good or really bad. We just didn?t have the intensity.?

Thornton led the Demons with 18 kills and 18 digs in a losing effort. Libe added eight kills and 17 digs, and senior Greta Smeins chipped in four kills. Senior Molly Donnolly had 20 digs, and Fishback had 18. Kennedy dished out 32 assists and was 19-for-21 serving with two aces.

Deutsch, Pekin?s do-it-all player, tallied 10 kills, 24 assists, four digs, two blocks and was 12-for-12 serving with an ace. Mosinski had 15 kills, five blocks and five digs, and Sterling added nine kills and five blocks. Crouse had six kills and 12 digs, and she was 28-for-28 serving with three aces. Barnhart had three kills and a block, and junior Ally Machala had two blocks. Sophomore Paige Jensen was 10-for-11 serving with three aces, and junior Dominique Tolle was 10-for-10 serving with an ace.

Heisdorffer said Monday?s win was an important one for her squad to get.

?It?s a big one for us because we have our last conference game against Mediapolis tomorrow night,? she said. ?So it?s good preparation for us. I told them no matter what their record is or how good of a team they are, it?s a big win for us against a 3A school. It just helps prepare us, because we know Mediapolis is 10 times better than any team we?ve faced all year.?

Tonight?s road contest against the 10th-ranked Bulldgos will start at 5:30 p.m.