Someone cracked open the gym door at Arlington High School on Thursday night, letting in a bit of cool air from the outside.
The host Eagles and Fort Calhoun opened their volleyball seasons inside, playing a hotly-contested, five-set Nebraska Capitol Conference match. When all was said and done, the visiting Pioneers won the come-from-behind matchup, 3-2.
Coach Liz Sevcik's team earned the reverse-sweep victory 22-25, 16-25, 25-19, 25-23 and 15-12. A straight-forward message helped FCHS overcome its two-set deficit.
“It was just, 'Come together. Talk each other through it,'” Sevcik said. “'Take a deep breath and play.'”
Sophomore right-side hitter Emilee Thayer-Mencke, who finished with a team-best 16 kills, noted two keys to victory.
“Serving aggressive and just being us,” she said. “Being fun.”
It couldn't have been too fun for the Pioneers early. Arlington won the first set by three, taking the lead for good at 16-15 when Macy Wolf's serve went unreturned. Kills by Valeria Carvajal, Rylie Kyllo and Layci Kucera helped push the Eagles' lead to 20-16 as it eventually took a 1-0 advantage.
“We had really good hustle and we had some really good swings, too,” said AHS sophomore Mylee Hadan.
Then, during the second set, a pair of Peyton Timm service aces gave AHS an 18-14 advantage. Fort Calhoun hit the ball into the net twice down the stretch, too, setting up Kucera, who capped the nine-point set win with a block.
“She has very good court sense,” Stosich said of the senior. “She sees some of those open spots, and she can get up and hit and she can also get up and tip and place the ball.”
The coach, ultimately, credited all of the Eagles for their play during Thursday's match. She specifically noted Jodi Jones when asked about the setter. The senior struggled two days earlier during Arlington's exhibition matches, but she played well against the Pioneers.
“To come back, and turn around and play the way that she played, I was extremely proud of her,” Stosich said.
The match went Calhoun's way from there, though. Sophomore Ansley Elofson spiked the ball down the line for set point during the third before beating an Arlington block to cap the fourth.
Both Coach Sevcik and the Pioneer herself said she heated up as the match went on.
“She kind of started hitting her groove, and taking some good swings and going for it,” Sevcik said. “'We needed that.”
“After we lost the first two, I felt like I had to go now,” Elofson added. “It was go time.”
A swing by senior Taylor Stewart gave FCHS a 20-12 advantage during the third set before Arlington made its own run to pull within 24-19. Elofson called for the ball in that moment.
“The third set, I looked at Sophie (Weeks) and I was like, 'Set the ball to me,'” she said, delivering on her request.
Arlington then led much of the fourth set before Thayer-Mencke scored a kill at 23-22. Senior Jordan Faucher served an ace next before Elofson ultimately produced set point.
“We needed our defensive specialist and our back row just to put the ball in play because I know we have big hitters,” Sevcik said of the Pioneers' comeback. “If we can get it to the setter and make it a playable ball, we're going to make kills.”
FCHS made them in the fifth, for sure. Thayer-Mencke's hard spike at 10-8 careened off Hadan in the back row and went into the Arlington student section filled with kids wearing Hawaiian shirts.
“(Emilee's) got a really high contact point and she can mix it up,” Sevcik said. “She can hit the line. She can hit deep corner. She just swings hard.”
Macy Wolf kept the Eagles close during the deciding set with a kill and a block, but Ali Dill's attack to the back line gave the Pioneers a 14-12 lead. Elofson then delivered the match-ender, setting off her team's celebration.
“We were just playing so free,” Thayer-Mencke said.
Hadan liked how her Arlington team competed during the season opener, too.
“I feel like we were all, especially myself, a lot more confident in ourselves,” the sophomore explained. “We've come together as a team, and we look a lot better and we feel a lot better.”
The tight, all-Washington County matchup made for quite the atmosphere at AHS, warming up the gym as the night went along.
“My voice is very, very strained,” Stosich said. “It was so loud. It was awesome.”
HS VOLLEYBALL LINE SCORE
Thursday
Fort Calhoun 3, Arlington 2
FCHS (1-0) 22 16 25 25 15 — 3
AHS (0-1) 25 25 19 23 12 — 2
