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Roughriders' second rally falls short in five at state
LINCOLN, Neb. — One Southwest comeback was absoutely awesome as the Roughriders erased a 10-point deficit in Thursday’s D-1 state quarterfinal against Elgin Public Pope John.
“Down 18-8, did I think we still had it?” coach Kim Barnett said in response to a reporter’s question. “I don’t know about that, but I’ve seen us make some great comebacks this season. I thought we were still in it, yeah.”
The No. 2-seed Roughriders took that set, 25-23, then scored a 25-19 victory at Lincoln’s Pinnacle Bank Arena.
They evened the match, 2-2, since EPPJ had posted earlier two-point victories of 25-23 and 26-24.
So did set five clinch a super comeback story?
Sadly, not quite.
“I told them we could not dig a hole, and sure enough we got down 4-0,” Barnett said. “We could have done it, especially in a full set, but it’s tough in a short one (first to 15 points) like that.”
Southwest did cut into the margin but Pope John eventually celebrated a 15-10 victory.
Southwest’s season ends at 29-4 after winning RPAC, district and subdistrict tournament championships.
Obviously, the ’Riders were looking for one more — or at least a state win after falling 3-2 to Oakland-Craig in last year’s C-2 state first round.
“We just didn’t seem quite in sync today, and I think it started with our passing being just a little bit off,” the coach explained. “We had a couple girls kind of under the weather. I don’t know if it was that or the atmopshere, but we just couldn’t really get our offense going.”
Senior Ashlynne Charf’s 15 kills powered EPPJ (27-6) with another 13 from junior Chloe Henn.
The Mustangs moved into today’s D-1 state semifinals.
Meanwhile, Southwest returns everyone most likely but 3,000-assist setter Brynn Lampe.
“Hopefully, we’ll be back here again next year,” Barnett concluded. Watch for final stats on Tuesday.