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Newark volleyball’s best postseason run since 2019 closes after supersectional loss to Illini Bluffs · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Newark Volleyball's best postseason run since 2019 closes after super sectional loss
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  to Ilani Bluffs. Written by Drake Landsman. This article is being read
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  by an automated voice brought to you by Everlet. The Newark volleyball
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  team’s best postseason run since 2019 came to a close after a
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  25-17, 25-21 loss to Illini Bluffs in Monday’s Class 1A Brimfield
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  Supersectional.
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  Coincidentally, it was the Tigers who the Norsemen beat that year to
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  win the state title.
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  On Monday night, Illini Bluffs 30-4 was the better team, punching its
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  ticket to this weekend’s state tournament in Normal. The Tigers will face
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  Athens at 9 a.m at Illinois State’s CEFCU Arena
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  Somebody is going to have to play really well to beat Illini
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  Bluffs, Newark coach P.J. McKinney said. Those three that were in serve-receive
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  passed the ball well all night.
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  This game’s all about first contact, serve and receive. We could have
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  served a little tougher and passed a little better, but you know
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  what, we’re here. And I’m proud of the way we got here.
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  It was close for a little while.
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  The first set was back and forth with neither team getting ahead
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  more than a couple points until the Tigers went up 18-15. Newark
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  35-6 took timeout, but Illini Bluffs answered with an ace and retained
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  control until the end.
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  The second set was tied 21-all before the Tigers scored the final
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  four points.
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  They will capitalize on any little mistake, McKinney said of IB. You
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  send it over softly, they’re going to bring it back. They’ve got
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  two really good hitters that are smart and strong.
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  Proud of my team. They fought through it and won 35 matches.
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  Our goal was 25 and I said, You guys did way more
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  than what you thought. Nobody thought we’d be here.
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  It was the team’s highest win total since winning 41 in 2019
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  during back-to-back state titles.
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  Tigers coach Quincy Thompson said her team was just focused on one
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  point at a time as it was able to pull away in
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  each set.
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  We really just said that we were going to focus on our
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  serve-receive pass, make sure that we get it up to our setter
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  so she’s not having to cover too much ground, she said, and
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  that way we can keep our ball at the net and have
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  our girls just absolutely hammer it.
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  Additionally, Newark wasn’t often able to get many easy kills offensively.
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  Defense and my back row really just held their own on that
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  and they really took pride in it, Thompson said. They went out
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  and they did it just focusing on that first touch, it just
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  set the tempo.
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  Thompson said the team was focused on keeping Newark’s hitters away from
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  the net.
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  They are an incredible team, she said. They played really, really hard
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  and they answered. They didn’t go soft. They didn’t let up on
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  anything. Our team just realized, hey, we have to go faster, we
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  have to go harder.
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  We’ve got to beat them to the net, we’ve got to beat
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  them around at the net and the defense had to really just
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  hold solid.
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  Newark sophomore Zoey Carlson led the team with 11 kills and junior
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  Rylie Carlson six kills had 10 digs. Senior Taylor Jeffers had 13
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  assists and classmate Ella Bromeland had six.
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  We’ve had great leadership that comes from our three seniors plus our
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  senior manager, McKinney said. They’ve been really good role models in the
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  program to say, Hey, this is what we expect and this is
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  what we need.
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  This year’s group had a great season and the future remains bright.
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  I’ve got seven underclassmen, McKinney said. Five freshmen, two sophomores. This
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  is why they’re on the team, to play these matches. We’re going
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  to expect to play in these games.
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  While they fell just short against another great team, the season could
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  not have gone too much better.
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  One game away from the state finals, I don’t know if anybody
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  on the outside would have thought that to start the season, McKinney
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  said. But my group thought we could get here and we did.
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  We’ll be back.