By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
Thursday was a night for treats and Mahomet-Seymour’s volleyball team received one of the sweetest ones possible.
For just the second time in the past 23 years, M-S captured a regional championship in volleyball. Since 1996, the school’s only other postseason hardware in volleyball was a regional title secured by the 2015 team.
On Thursday, the Bulldogs were matched with the same opponent they faced more than two months ago in the season-opener, Champaign Central.
The August match started with Central winning the first set and M-S storming back to take the next two sets.
On Thursday, in the Class 3A regional finals at Decatur Eisenhower, Central won the first set and M-S stormed back to take the next two sets.
M-S’ 23-25, 25-23, 25-10 triumph sends it into a sectional semifinal match which will be played on Monday on the Bulldogs’ court.
Between the first and second sets, first-year M-S head coach Stan Bergman took a big-picture approach.
“We talked about resetting their focus, getting the monkey off our backs and completing some goals they felt they had earned,” Bergman said.
The Bulldogs scored the first two points of the second set, before falling behind 14-10.
A timeout helped change the momentum.
“Maybe Central let up,” Bergman said. “They made a couple of errors.”
M-S forged a 16-16 tie and surged ahead, 20-17 and 24-21 before forcing a third-set tiebreaker.
“The third set, we served tough and tried to take them out of their rhythm,” Bergman said.
Before either team had scored 16 points, M-S had built a double-digit lead.
Three Bulldogs had season-best nights.
Setter Kayin Garner delivered 33 assists. Ainsley Ranstead pounded 20 kills and Josie Hess contributed 21 digs.
Lauren Minick added five kills.
The final result, Bergman said, was rewarding.
“This group is tired of hearing how good they could be,” Bergman said. “It’s not could-be, it’s reality for them now.
“This is good for them to see how the hard work in practice is paying off.”
Not to be lost among the night’s achievements: the victory was the Bulldogs’ 30th of the season, which ties a school record set by the 1995 program and later matched by the 2005 team.
“Thirty. That’s a huge number,” Bergman said. “It’s fun to be at that level with this group, especially the first year.
“We’ve talked about wanting to change the expectations of Mahomet-Seymour volleyball. We want to get to where we’re in contention most of the time.”
The Bulldogs are 30-7 overall. Central, which ousted Centennial 21-25, 29-27, 25-22 in Tuesday’s semifinal nightcap, closes with an 18-16 season record.
M-S will return to action on its own court on Monday in the second semifinal match at 6:30 p.m. against Normal University High (31-6). The Bulldogs have already played the Pioneers once in their gym, dropping a two-set decision on Sept. 19.
Monday’s semifinal opener will be between Bergman’s former school, St. Thomas More, and Rochester. That match will start at 5:30 p.m.
Three of the Bulldogs losses this season were to opponents they played a second time and defeated (St. Joseph-Ogden, Mount Zion and Effingham).
Normal U-High, which has three of its starters who have committed to colleges, is led by 6-foot-2 Alayna Crabtree who slugged 10 kills on Thursday in a 25-17, 25-18 regional-title-match win over Bloomington. Crabtree is headed to Boston College.
M-S has won 17 of its last 18 matches, with 16 of the wins in straight sets.
The Bulldogs secured a spot in the Class 3A Eisenhower Regional championship volleyball match by sweeping Decatur MacArthur on Tuesday.
In its semifinal win over MacArthur, 25-11, 25-12, M-S received seven digs and an ace from Hess and six kills from Amber Yeakel.
Overall in the Class 3A bracket, there are 32 teams still in contention statewide.
