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Tigers awake, rally past Falcons to RPAC final
McCOOK, Neb. — Don’t wake the Tigers!
Especially that one with red hair who suddenly ruined a fun Hitchcock County visit into Tuesday’s RPAC tournament semifinals.
Falcon fans were enjoying popcorn and watching their girls take down the West Division’s No. 1 seed, 25-13, in the opening set.
“They (Hitchcock) definitely took it to us. They had nothing to lose,” DC-S coach Bill Wilson said. “We’d beaten them a couple of times before this year, but they were the more aggressive team in that first set.”
Nothing changed as Falcons kept attacking deep into set two. They even reached set point, 24-21, as several senior leaders showed the Hitchcock tenacity that put a scare into mighty Cambridge last week.
That 25th point was oh so close until — suddenly — an older Tiger named Adelene Krutsinger awoke.
Krutsinger made a spinning, lunging save to keep the Tigers alive and awake their other lead cat: senior volleyball killer Grace Frederick.
Frederick turned A.K.’s hustle into a huge point, and all the Tigers were soon joining this feeding call.
Points poured down from all angles as DC-S was soon celebrating a 27-25 comeback win.
“We were lucky to get that second set,” Wilson observed. “It would have been pretty tough to come back if we had lost that.”
Instead, the Tigers took charge from juniors Jessie Freeland and Sydney Reichert to sophomore Maggie Lutz.
West No. 1 DC-S almost never trailed again while winning those next two sets 25-15, 25-16.
They advanced into the RPAC finals for a third consecutive year to face East No. 3-seed Bertrand.
Meanwhile, the Falcons (14-11 record) could only move on from a missed RPAC title shot.
“Once we lost momentum, we hang our heads and forget to play,” coach Kylee Forch said. “It’s something we’ve had trouble with all season. Momentum is big in volleyball. We had it...we just let it get away from us.”