During the regular season, No. 6 Mount Hebron managed to come within two points of winning one game from No. 1 Centennial. Last night, the Vikings came within a few points of stealing the Class 3A East regional title from the three-time defending state champs.
The host Eagles (21-1) finally recovered the momentum late in the fourth game en route to a 15-12, 15-5, 9-15, 8-15, 15-10 victory in a match that lasted more than two hours.
The Vikings (14-6) jumped ahead 11-4 in the first game and forced Centennial to fight for every point the rest of the match. Both teams played well defensively and at the net, where Krisha Svehla led the Eagles with 20 kills and Dani Vissers led the Vikings with 17.
The Eagles, who have eliminated the Vikings in the regional playoffs three straight years, haven't seen a tougher opponent in the state playoffs.
"That kind of match should be saved for states. A state final like that would be great." said Centennial coach Mike Bossom, whose team moves on to the state semifinals Monday at 5 or 7 p.m. at LaPlata High in Charles County.
The Vikings surprised Centennial in the first game using great back-court defense and a handful of big blocks to run up an 11-4 lead. But Marcie Kunkel served a couple of aces to spark a 10-point Eagles run and a first-game win.
"The first game when were up so high and then we lost it, I was really concerned," said Vikings coach Jeannine McCrumb. "I really felt we weren't going to come back after that, but we did. I couldn't ask for more."
After the Eagles won a quick second game, the Vikings rallied with strong serving and solid net play to win the next two games.
"We did not make as many errors as we did the last couple times we played them," said McCrumb. "We were trying to go to their middle more than we did and then we got lucky in that when things opened up, we could kill in the middle, too."
Mount Hebron ran up an 11-1 lead in the fourth game, but that's when the Eagles started their steady climb back into the match.
They passed more accurately enabling Sheri Kujawa to set up the hitters better. Svehla, 6-1 senior, stepped up in the final stretch. She had nine kills after Hebron took its 11-1 lead in the fourth game.
The Vikings led by as much as 13-3 in the fourth game, but Centennial scored five straight to pull within 13-8 before the Vikings finished off the game.
The Eagles never trailed in the fifth game, although the Vikings pulled within 10-8. Svehla's kill ended the run and West (eight kills) and Michelle Dugan (10 kills) added kills in a three-point run to go ahead 13-8. West finished the match by pounding down a Vikings overpass.
"I saw it in every single person's face how much they wanted to win," said Kujawa, who finished with 41 assists and nine kills. "Everybody played as hard as they could, and it showed."
Meredith Price also had nine kills for the Eagles. Lia Kaltreider had 10 for Mount Hebron, and teammates Kathy Doyle, Sara Eberhart and Kate Hannas had five each.