ZEELAND - As the second set was starting to pull away, Zeeland East's top hitter went up for a spike that would keep the momentum going for the Chix.
But Holland Christian's Tessa Leeuw had other ideas.
The Maroons middle hitter put up a huge solo block on the play and that swung the momentum and sparked Holland Christian to a 25-18, 25-23, 25-20 win over Zeeland East on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Zeeland East High School.
"It felt really good. We had lost a little bit of momentum and helped us get right back up. It reminded us of what we were capable of," Leeuw said. "We felt like we had nothing to lose and we just gave everything we got."
More: Kyla Kuiper serves historic set to lead Zeeland East volleyball past West; HC tops Hamilton
"Momentum is everything. Mental toughness is why we won. If we can stay mentally tough and not let errors get us down, we are unstoppable," Holland Christian coach Kylie Leeuw said.
The teams split regular-season matches and both sit at 9-1 in the OK Black Conference with three matches to go. If they both win out, they would share the conference title.
The Maroons (17-10-1) needed the win to make that happen.
"They beat us in three the first time and we upped the intensity after that," Tessa Leeuw said. "We kept our energy up and had a different mentality. We didn't doubt ourselves and held ourselves to our highest expectations."
Leeuw led the Maroons with 15 kills. Allison Lamer had nine and Addi Meiste added eight. Ella Terpstra had 34 assists. Lamer had 10 digs.
"They knew they wanted this one. It is always great competition. Serve-receive was great, and when we have that, we can run an offense - and we have some great hitters who can put the ball down," Kylie Leeuw said. "They played fantastic."
Lizzie Risdon led the Chix with nine kills. Bri Cole had five and Ava Geerlings had four.
"We did somethings well, our serve-receive was pretty good. But we had a few miscues and they took advantage of every opportunity we gave them - and we gave them too many," Zeeland East coach Jake Szetela said. "They played a high energy game and we let that slip a little bit. We just have to keep moving forward and get back to work."
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland Christian volleyball stuns Zeeland East with sweep of first-place match