The Blair Bears had come too far.
Trailing the visiting Omaha Mercy Monarchs 2-0, coach Becca Mellema's BHS volleyball team battled back with third- and fourth-set victories to force the deciding fifth. That final race to 15 wound up tied, 11-11, before the home squad pulled it out.
“Oh my goodness,” Blair freshman Taylor Mostek said. “My heart was beating out of my chest.”
The outside hitter was nervous, but knew what it would take to complete the comeback.
“We just needed to control our side of the court and let them make their mistakes,” she said. “We pulled through and now my heart feels a lot better.”
Sophomore Peyton Ogle logged two kills down the stretch — one on a light swing and another hard off of a Mercy block — while senior Claire Gochanour scored her own on a ball that finally reached the floor just inside the back line. The end result of their efforts was an improbable, 3-2 Blair victory — their seventh win of the season overall.
The 9-25, 18-25, 25-18, 25-21, 15-12 Bear win came against a Monarch squad with a winning record, a rare feat for the BHS program over the last decade. Mercy also beat the Bears in an exhibition match just before the regular season.
“It really showed us how far we've come,” Ogle said. “It was really good to take a win.”
Blair earned it after a disastrous start. The home team fell behind 9-3 early during the first set, making routine plays look difficult. It lost it by 16 before bouncing back with an 18-16 lead in the second.
The Bears earned the second-set advantage with an Ellia Klanderud kill and a Mercy attack that went long. From there, though, the Monarchs scored nine points in a row, completing 2/3 of what they hoped would be a 3-0 sweep.
Blair wouldn't let it happen, though.
“I almost feel they like or are motivated by being down because they then have something to chase,” Mellema said. “It takes years off of my life, but ...”
Another Klanderud hit gave her team a 18-17, third-set lead before Mostek's ace pushed that advantage to 21-17. Gochanour later closed it out with a kill, pulling the Bears within 2-1.
“I think the key was just playing clean,” Mellema said. “Honestly.”
BHS supplied the final lead change of the fourth set when Olivia Fitchhorn's serve went unreturned at 19-18. She added an ace at 23-18 before Mostek scored game point, pushing the once 2-0 match onto a sudden-death fifth.
Mostek, Gochanour and Ogle registered late kills, and both Fitchhorn and libero Megan McKeon served aces, as the Bears ended the night on a high note.
“There was definitely pressure there, but we were ready for it,” Ogle said of her team, which played without starter Schuyler Roewert in the lineup.
Blair improved to 7-10 with the win. The Bears' next victory will bring their total to a program-high since the 2013 squad won 10. Mostek was just 6 years old during that 10-20 campaign.
