Taylorville volleyball rallies to upset top-ranked U-High and earn first trip to state
CHATHAM — Down six points in the second set and two points from watching the No. 1-ranked Normal University High Pioneers celebrate a trip to the Class 3A state semifinals, Taylorville coach Kim Peabody called her final timeout.
It seemed as if the unranked Tornadoes’ first trip to the state tournament would be just out of their grasp.
But Taylorville, which even trailed 24-21 a few points later, rebounded to win the second set 26-24 and then held off the Pioneers 25-23 to win the tiebreaking third set.
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“She told us that this is our set, we need one pass, we’re going to get a kill and we’re going to push from there,” Taylorville senior outside hitter Elle Richards said of Peabody’s timeout. “It feels amazing. I never thought I’d be here. Ms. Peabody pushes us so hard so we didn’t do this for us, we did this for her.”
Jubilation ensued as the Taylorville student section poured from the stands, followed — a little more slowly and carefully — from the parents and other adult fans.
The Tornadoes (30-9-1), who had just one regional from 1998 through 2015, broke through to the state finals on their third trip to the supersectional round since 2016.
The third time’s a charm.
Taylorville will face LaGrange Park Nazareth (21-16) in the second Class 3A state semifinal on Friday, Nov. 11 around 5:30 p.m. at Redbird Arena on the Illinois State University campus in Normal. The winner will face either Joliet Catholic or Wheaton St. Francis on Saturday. Taylorville is the last remaining public school in 3A.
Taylorville senior Sophie Mizeur said she had been confident all day that her squad could do it. That feeling continued as the Class 3A’s top-ranked team by illprepvb.com won the first set 25-22 and well into that second set — even as the Tornadoes faced a huge deficit late.
“Honestly, this feels amazing but I'm not going to lie: I had a gut feeling, and I talked with my team and I knew going into this, ‘We can do this’ and I knew as a team that we were going to make it,” Mizeur said. “I came into this with a nice ease and we just did what I knew what we could do.”
Digging down deep
For third-year starting Libero Sam Logue, her assignment was difficult: prevent the Pioneers’ big hitters from getting their hits to the floor. Logue dove all over the floor as U-High's top attacker, Lily Barry had 11 kills. Had it not been for Logue and her 14 digs, Barry would’ve had many more.
“(Logue) played outstanding and she’s been the one to help us go on this run,” Peabody said. “This is the best she’s played. She’s been starting since she was a sophomore and seniors know the end is coming and she was just going and keep digging everything up.
“Defense wins and she passed well off the serve, she kept the ball alive, she was so good behind the service line as well.”
U-High coach Mike Bolhuis said Taylorville’s middle blockers, including freshman Robyn Odugbesan and sophomore Mazie Fleming, made life tough for Barry.
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“Lily was ripping it. That’s what she does: she does up and hits it as hard as they can,” Bolhuis said. “(Taylorville) had a huge middle block the entire time against her, and you’ve got to try to figure out a way to hit around that. The way they were playing defense around that was solid and they did a good job defending Lily.”
Logue is one of four seniors on the team. She was part of the team which lost to Normal West in the 3A Taylorville Supersectional a year ago.
“It was our defense,” Logue said of the Tornadoes’ key to the win. “We needed blocks, we needed defense and we needed to get Lily (Barry) and get her digs up and we did. We played better defense than them.”
Quite the rally
In the second set, down 23-17 and two points from elimination, Richards started off a four-point Taylorville run with a kill. Then U-High hit three straight balls out of bounds to climb within 23-21. After a U-High timeout, Barry put the Pioneers ahead 24-21. That would be U-High's last point of the second set.
Richards and Odugbesan combined for a block, U-High gave Taylorville a point on a violation then Odugbesan had a kill, Addison Tarr had a service ace and Richards forced the third set with a kill for the 26-24 win.
Taylorville started the third set with an ace from Mizeur, led 5-2 and 10-7. When U-High hit a return into its side of the net to give the Tornadoes a 15-12 lead, Bolhuis called time out. Taylorville emerged from timeout and got a kill from Tarr and an ace from Olivia Woodward to force Bolhuis to burn his last timeout just two points later.
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“I think they started getting frustrated in the second set when we started winning and then it just went downhill from there,” Logue said of U-High.
Fleming’s block gave Taylorville a 23-22 lead. After U-High's Rachel Ogunleye got a kill to force a side out and pull U-High within 24-23, Peabody called timeout.
U-High's final serve was a violation and Taylorville won.
Odugbesan finished with four kills and three blocks. Although she helped the Taylorville eighth-grade team finish third earlier this year in the Illinois Elementary School Association state tournament, she said this one felt much different. And as one of the youngest players on the team, she said she tried for a simplistic approach.
“I feel like I did my best just to keep my cool and stay relaxed so I didn’t try to perfect everything and make huge mistakes,” Odugbesan said.
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA volleyball: Taylorville upsets No. 1 Normal U-High to make state
