Bearcats stay alive

North Butler regains control against Vikings, advance to regional volleyball semis with 3-2 win

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

GREENE — Even when you have the home field/court advantage, there are times you don’t want to go to a Game 5 … or fifth set for that matter.

In a best-of-five format during the Class 1A-Region 5 volleyball quarterfinals on Monday, the hosting North Butler Bearcats suddenly saw a fifth set staring at them after the Northwood-Kensett Vikings suddenly turned things around after being down 0-2 in the match.

Unlike a certain midwestern baseball team, the Bearcats were unable to avoid a fifth stanza.

Nonetheless, North Butler regained its composure and won the deciding set, 15-4.

The Bearcats now advance to the semifinals this Thursday in Janesville where they will likely face the hosting the Wildcats, the top-ranked Class 1A team, at 7 p.m.

In the first set, the Bearcats jumped out to a 17-10 lead. The Vikings made a little run to pull within four (21-17), but a sideout kill by Darby Christensen which she followed with an ace and two more service points capped the 25-17 set win for North Butler.

The Bearcats continued to roll in the second set. Kills by Nicole Heeren and Kayla Siemens put them up 6-2 before a double blocking kill by Siemens and Emy Osterbuhr and a hitting kill by Osterbuhr stretched the advantage to 13-5.

Siemens assisted Makayla Hauser’s kill with a back-set to make the score 21-12, before Madi Please set the ball over the net to an open spot on the Vikings’ side of the floor to conclude the 25-14 second set win.

The next two sets the Vikings managed to turn things around while tipping hard attacks at the net and keeping the ball in play with all-out diving digs.

A kill by Terran Haberman gave the Vikings a 18-14 lead in the third set before another kill by Harris made the score 24-15 on way to a N-K 25-16 third set victory.

Harris continued to be a force at the net in the fourth set as her blocking kill put the Vikings up 5-4 before her hitting kill extended the lead to 10-7.

A series of service errors and net violations dug North Butler into a deeper hole at 17-11 before losing 25-20.

In the fifth match, the Bearcats jumped out to a 9-3 lead on Pleas’s one-handed kill. Eventually, Siemens’s kill from the left-side put the stubborn Vikings away.