For the second year in a row, the Southeastern Panthers will play for a Division 3 Regional Volleyball championship against Tuscarawas Valley, after the Panthers took down Berlin Hiland 26-24, 25-18, 23-25, 26-24 in Thursday's semifinal match.
Tusky Valley swept previously unbeaten Wheelersburg in the other semi, 25-18, 25-19, 25-11 to set-up their rematch with Southeastern at 2pm Saturday at Logan High School.
A late rally by Southeastern in Set 1, set their course for the rest of the match when trailing 24-21, the Panthers went on a 5-0 run to win 26-24. The Panthers then sailed in Set 2 by a score of 25-18.
Set 3 saw the Panthers trailing by as many as five points again, and down 24-19, came back to take cut the margin to 24-23, before serving in the net and allow Hiland to win 25-23.
Set 4 saw the Panthers down by as many as five points again, but the fought back to take brief leads of 20-18 and 23-20. Hiland rallied for a 24-23 lead, but the Panthers again closed strong with a 3-0 run for the match victory at 26-24.
Jessica Bolte led the offense with 15 kills, while Lindsey Skeens added 9, Hannah Lougheed 7, Skylar Hice 5, Sierra Delong 4 and Lauren Goebel with 2. Lougheed also has 5 blocks. Hice led the defense with 28 digs, Lexi Lockwood with 24, Goebel with 23 digs and 34 assists and Delong with 12 digs.
Madison Yoder led Hiland with 21 kills and Jasmine Hershey had 19 digs. The Panthers were able to overcome being aces 10 times by the Hawks.
Southeastern improves to (24-3) and will face the defending regional champ Trojans Saturday. 94 Country WKKJ airtime will be 1:45pm.
The play-by-play from Mike Smith and Tom Beard on 94 Country WKKJ can be heard in our podcast link below. (The first several minutes of the opening set are missing due to technical problems)....