Harvard volleyball squad advances to state

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SPRING VALLEY – Not once. Or twice.

But five times the Harvard defense held.

Harvard’s girls volleyball team beat Illinois Valley Central, 16-25, 31-29, 25-20, in Saturday’s IHSA Class 2A Spring Valley Hall Supersectional at Red Devil Gymnasium.

The Hornets (26-12) advance to the 12:30 p.m. state semifinal match Friday at Redbird Arena in Normal against Chicago Christian.

In the second set, Harvard held match point five times before finally grabbing the win.

The Grey Ghosts trailed, 24-22, before a service error and a Laci Peterson kill tied the match. From there, the next 12 points were anything but boring.

When IVC again found itself trailing, 26-25, Kelsey Brooke took matters into her own hands. The senior outside hitter pounded down two kills to give the Ghosts a 27-26 advantage.

However, Harvard battled back. Using an ace and kill from Ashleigh Fisher, the Hornets regained the lead, 28-27.

Brooke then responded with a kill and an ace of her own, propelling IVC to a 29-28 lead.

“We just couldn’t put it away, could we?” IVC coach Lisa Miller said. “Could not put it away.”

Harvard closed out the set with a 3-0 run behind a tip from Shannon Ditsch, a Megan Struck kill and a dump from setter Katarina Rotta.

“We just kept swinging,” Harvard coach Kelly Brierley said. “Definitely, winning that second [set] gave us the momentum to start the third [set].”

A visibly tired IVC squad hung with Harvard in the beginning of the third set. The Hornets led, 3-2, 5-4 and 6-5, before a 7-1 push. During that run, Harvard was helped from an IVC service error, three Brittany Finke kills, an Ashleigh Fisher ace and a block by Ditsch.

“Intense. Scary,” Fisher said of the attitude in the third set. “We couldn’t get pumped up enough. It was just so intense.”

The Ghosts cut their deficit in the third set to four points (13-9), but five points was as close as IVC got the rest of the night until a late rally.

IVC jumped all over Harvard in the opening set with leads of 4-1, 14-9, 17-10 and 22-15. But the Hornets adjusted, and the ball began to find the floor.

“We had the momentum in our hands and the first [set] we just didn’t hold the momentum,” said Fisher, who finished with 13 kills, 23 digs and two aces. “When we took the ball control and intensity and momentum, we just got [the win].”

Harvard got 34 assists from Rotta and seven blocks from Ditsch.