'This is our year': Tuslaw outlasts Smithville in epic five-set district semifinal

SMITHVILLE — Jenna Boyd was busy Wednesday night.

And Tuslaw’s needed everything the senior could give them.

Boyd put together a career night in the back row and the Mustangs won a thriller, 25-23, 20-25, 25-27, 25-18, 20-18 over host Smithville in the Division III Smithville District semifinals.

“My mindset is just go for everything, try to keep the ball alive,” Boyd said. “I want to fight for my team, for myself, because this could've been my last game. I wanted to do anything I could to keep the ball up and keep playing, keep fighting.”

Fight might be an understatement at Tuslaw (22-3) rallied from a 2-1 deficit and then survived being on the wrong side of two match points in the final set in advancing to Saturday’s final against Waynedale. The Golden Bears swept Columbia in the nightcap. The final is set for Saturday at Smithville's Berkey Fieldhouse.

It seemed like every time Smithville (20-4) got its attack, Boyd was there. The defensive specialist was either saving balls from landing on the court in the back or playing the ball to the setting tandem of Dani Crescenze and Michaela Stevens to help keep the Mustangs going.

The result was a career-high 43 digs, including a handful coming in the deciding fifth set to put Tuslaw one win away from its first-ever district championship.

But Boyd was quick to credit the block at the net for slowing down some of those potentially dangerous balls coming her way. A host of Mustangs had a pair of blocks, as Ashley Eberhardt, Katelyn Eberhardt, Gwen Wilhelm and Hailey Conrad controlled things at the net at the most crucial times in the team’s season.

“It was definitely difficult, we had to be ready for everything,” Boyd said of facing the Smithies. “What made my job a lot easier, was being able to rely on our blocks, because they were crazy.”

Ultimately, Tuslaw found a way to get it done.

Trailing by a game, the ‘Stangs put together an impressive finish to the fourth set, where it scored eight of the last nine points in the match, with a pair of aces from Katelyn Eberhardt and a pair of kills by Wilhelm, before an impressive block by Conrad to end the game,

The fifth was a classic as the 15-point, winner-take-all set had nine different ties, included the game facing match point on six different occasions, before finishing the match with a Stookey kill to set up the final game point and a Smithie error to close things out.

“Those were the two things we were driving home and, at the end of the day, you have to be ready to play and want every point,” Tuslaw coach Sydney Laney said. “This is the tournament. It's supposed to go five. It's supposed to be tough.

“They just had something in them and were able to rock-n-roll and just take it away.”

Boyd was far from alone in the defensive effort as Kendall Reichard added 28 digs of her own and Aailyah Hankison added 27. Crescenze (13 digs) and Stevens (11) also were in double figures in the category.

With those plays in the back row, Crescenze and Stevens were able to run the attack to the tune of 27 and 22 assists, as three different players reached double-figure kills — Katelyn Eberhardt with a team-high 13, followed by Stookey (12) and Conrad (10).

“We take a lot of pride in that fact that we can move the ball, and anybody can score on our team,” Laney said. “We obviously have those go-tos, but our setters do a great job of moving the ball around and I like to think it's hard for people to play us, because they don't know who is going to light it up that night.”

That multi-faceted offense was tough for the Smithies to slow down, despite gaining a little momentum after taking the lead back late in their game three victory.

“Our game plan was to serve tough and keep them out of system as much as possible, rely on our defense,” said Smithies first-year coach David Yoder, whose team came into the night with a 12-match win streak. “We knew that their game was to pound the ball and our game was to play defense and keep the ball alive.

“We talked all week about how this was going to be a battle, from the first serve to the very last ball ... we didn't expect anything different,” he added. “It was just two teams, battling it out to try and get points.”

Naomi Keib was impressive for Smithville in the loss. The junior was downright unstoppable at times, registering a match-high 23 kills.

And, through those first three games, it looked like the Smithies' defensive gameplan was paying off as three players — Angelina Yates (21 digs), Taryn Fath (19) and Madi Singer (18) — did all they could to keep plays alive against the heavy-hitting Tuslaw lineup.

In the end, however, it was Mustangs finding a way to tough-out a postseason victory in a year that has been highlighted with memorable moments.

And they’re not done yet.

“It's insane,” Boyd said. “It's a surreal feeling, especially because in the past we've played Smithville in the tournament, and we've always lost.

“But this is our year. We won the PAC, and this was the year to get them ... and we did.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Volleyball: Tuslaw beats Smithville in five-set district semifinal