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New Knoxville players celebrate winning a set during Thursday's Division VII regional semifinal against Hilltop.
KANSAS - New Knoxville has been on a mission through the postseason, and that mission is now to make it to state.
The Rangers fended off a tough Hilltop squad to get the 25-23, 26-24, 25-17 sweep over the Cadets in the Division VII regional semifinals on Thursday night at Lakota High School in Sandusky County.
New Knoxville (16-10) moves on to the regional final on Saturday at 2 p.m. to take on Tiffin Calvert. The Senecas (28-0) defeated Leipsic in four sets in the nightcap.
The first set was a back-and-forth affair as the Rangers tried to contain the work of Hilltop middle hitters Libbie Baker and Brynn Rodriguez.
New Knoxville's Brynn Egbert spikes the ball against Hilltop.
The Cadets were up 10-4 before Brynn Egbert got the kill and then went back to serve up five straight points with Avery Albers getting a kill to tie the set at 10 before Hilltop regained the lead. The teams were tied up at 14-all before Addi Albers served up three straight points to give New Knoxville a 17-14 cushion. Hilltop kept pushing, tying the game at 19-all and 20-all before the Rangers took the lead again. Avery Albers got a kill and Kinley Rutschilling added an ace to make it 23-20. The Cadets continued to battle, but Egbert got a stuff block to close out the set.
"They put up a wall against our hitters," said Rangers coach Madison Hoehne of Baker and Rodriguez. "For a little bit, we were playing it safe and not to hit into the blockers. I told them this was not the time to play it safe. You take the risk and stay aggressive, or there's a chance our season can come to an end."
The Cadets (22-4) took an early lead for the second straight set, going up 5-2 before New Knoxville started coming back. The Rangers took the lead at 7-6 and held off the Cadets until a Rodriguez spike tied the set at 17-all, then a Ranger double-hit call gave the Cadets the lead. Giada Rising served up three points to make it 23-20, then a Rodriguez kill gave the Cadets set point at 24-21.
At that point, New Knoxville caught a break when a Hilltop spike over the net was flagged for hitting the antenna, making the score 24-22 and Avery Homan going back to serve. Avery Albers came up with back-to-back kills to tie the set, then the Cadets were called for the double hit to give New Knoxville set point, Rutschilling then spiked the ball to the Cadet side of the floor to end the action and put the Rangers up 2-0 in the match.
"I think the best summary of the match was the last six points of the second set," said Hoehne. "We started spreading out and going on more runs with our serves. That took some pressure off us. First set were so back-and-forth."
New Knoxville's Avery Albers spikes the ball during the Rangers' regional semifinal match with Hilltop at Kansas Lakota.
The Cadets got the opening point for the third straight and were up 4-2 early, but the Rangers were not in the mood for an extension of the match. Avery Albers had two aces and Egbert had two kills to put the Rangers in front 6-4. New Knoxville tried to pull away, going up 12-7 at one point, but the Cadets got a good service run to tie the set at 15-all, only to have Avery and Addison Albers come up with a block to give the Rangers the lead to stay. Avery Albers later served up two more paces to make it 22-16, then Egbert closed out the match with an enthusiastic kill.
"We have a young team (two seniors with two sophomores and three freshmen playing in the rotation)," said Hoehne. "For them to play in this enviroment with a mature team on the other side of the net, we rose to the challenge and got better tonight."
Egbert finished the night with 25 kills for New Knoxville. Avery Albers had seven kills, 11 digs and three aces. Addison Albers recorded 37 assists and Paige Webb had 22 digs.
Baker finished with 13 kills and four blocks with Rodriguez adding nine kills and six blocks.
