SENECA, Mo. — Playing with the underdog mentality in front of the home crowd, Seneca added to its historical season as the Indians hosted 29-win Mountain Grove and walked away with a 26-24, 25-22 and 25-12 sweep over the Panthers in the sectional round of the Class 3 state tournament on Thursday.
Seneca and Mountain Grove (29-8) played a seesaw first set that saw the Indians rally late to go up 1-0. Seneca jumped out to strong starts in the second and third sets, holding off Mountain Grove in the second set before pulling away down the stretch of the third and final set to clinch the first sectional win in program history.
“I don’t even know how much this means to the program because it’s never happened before,” Seneca coach Rachel Ayo said with a smile after the win. “We came in as the underdog. Mountain Grove came in probably thinking they were going to have an easy win because of what they have done this year, but we came out and played well all the way around the board. I wish this team would have shown up and played like this all season because we could have been undefeated.”
THE RIDE CONTINUES
With the win, the Indians’ record improves to 23-11-1 on the season. Seneca again will play hosts in the quarterfinal round of the Class 3 state tournament as the Indians welcome Eldon—who defeated Sullivan in the sectional round—at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
STATS
Senior Brylee Sage finished with 32 assists, three blocks and three aces, while senior Parker Long had 16 kills and 10 digs. Junior Jera Jameson had 12 kills and two aces, while junior Ella Graham had 10 digs and senior Braxton Raulson had nine.
“It means everything to us,” Long said after the win. “We love all of the support our community has given us so far. I can only hope that we keep on going and keep on winning. … This is amazing. I haven’t done anything like this before. It feels great to be the first team in school history to do this. The support our home crowd showed us tonight was phenomenal. I couldn’t ask for anything else.”
THE SWEEP
The opening set was a back-and-forth affair from the first serve, with Seneca playing in front by a slim margin for much of the time. The Indians used a three-point service run from senior Tatum White, which was fueled by a kill from senior Amber Garrison and a block from Sage, and a three-point run in service from Long, which included an ace, to build a 13-9 advantage.
“This is the best she has pressed at the net,” Ayo said of Sage’s defensive play up front as the team’s setter. “We have been working with her on it in practice, getting her to press her block, and she showed tonight that she is able to press her block. It was such a huge momentum swing every time she was able to get her blocks.”
Mountain Grove scored eight of the next 11 points to rally all the way back for a 17-16 lead on a kill from junior Jozey MacPherson. Seneca responded with five of the next six points to take a 21-18 lead, but sophomore Raylee Stenzel earned three kills and a block and junior Kaily Wake added a kill over the next seven points to put the Panthers on top 24-22.
A sideout kill from Garrison gave Seneca the serve trailing one, with an attack error, a block by Sage and another attack error on Graham’s service clinching the set win for the Indians.
“That was huge because you want to use the momentum from the first set moving forward into the second and third,” Ayo said. “Being able to win that first set, and doing so on such a positive note, was huge for the momentum. We came out swinging in the start of the second set because of that.”
Seneca jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second set on the back of Sage’s service and ultimately took a 15-8 on back-to-back kills from Garrison and Jameson. After two points from the Panthers, Jameson swung for two more kills for a 17-10 lead and later made the score 18-12 with a sideout kill.
“Jera can dominate at the net in the middle whenever she is on,” Ayo said. “And when she is on, you want to feed her the ball because she is a big threat. She is very hard to defend.”
Raulston followed with five points in service, which included an ace, a kill from Raulston and kills from Jameson and Long, to push the lead to 23-12.
Facing set point following a Long kill, Mountain Grove refused to go down without a fight by rattling off seven straight points to trim the lead to two before another kill by Long ended the second set for the Indians.
“Parker is a great offensive threat and is able to get kills on balls that should have been hit into the net or out of bounds,” Ayo said. “She can strategically place the ball and find the holes in the court.”
The third set was controlled by Seneca from the onset. The Indians jumped out to an 11-3 advantage early with Sage and Jameson picked up aces and Long, Raulston and Jameson earning kills during the stretch.
MacPherson used a three-point run in service to cut the lead to four, but that would be the closest Mountain Grove would get to the lead, as the Indians scored seven of the next eight points to take a commanding 19-9 lead. Long, Garrison and Raulston recorded kills, while Graham had an ace.
Seneca finished off the match shortly after, with Jameson scoring the final three points in service, capping off the Indians’ first-ever sectional victory with an ace.
“This is something new to this school and to this program,” Ayo said about her team continuing on in the state tournament. “I just want the girls to go out and enjoy it. I want them to have a great experience and I am excited to see what we get to do on Saturday. This was 100 percent the best atmosphere I have seen in this gym for volleyball and it had a huge effect on the game tonight.”
