BLOOMINGTON — Bloomington South's volleyball team acted like it had been there before.
The Panthers stubbed their toe in last year's regional match against Castle. One year later, they brought back most of the same players, but were a much different team.
Lessons absorbed, South was confident and on point with a nearly perfect start that launched a 25-11, 25-14, 25-17 sweep of young, outmanned Columbus East in the Class 4A Bloomington North Regional on Saturday, Oct. 24.
For the first time since 1977, South is a regional champ.
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"Whenever I heard that stat, that drove me," South senior middle Quinn Reynolds said. "I really wanted to win after hearing we hadn't won since the 70s. And I knew this was the team that we can go far with, so that's really exciting to have ended that (streak)."
“That's crazy," senior libero Neely Warner said. "I'm so proud of our team."
Edgewood (2011-12) was the last county program to win a regional with North last making the elite eight in 2005 when the IHSAA had four-team regionals.
And with a 29-2 record, this team is now the school record holder for most wins in a season and moves on to semi-state, where the Panthers will face another rematch with Center Grove (32-4), a four-set winner over Brownsburg. The other pairing has Floyd Central (29-5) taking on Yorktown (29-2).
Those matches will take place at Jennings County Saturday, Oct. 31, with the early semifinal winners advancing to the championship match at night. Match times were not announced as of late Saturday night.
"It's amazing," South coach Emma Abplanalp said. "This group, they want it bad and they wanted this game. We were just here a year ago and I said we'd be back if we'd figure it out, and they did. They spent the whole offseason, in-season all 31 games for this moment."
Made for the moment
Getting over the regional hump meant meeting the moment when it came, no matter the opponent or the final result. Seven seniors have led the way.
"That entailed winning all the games we should and trying our hardest and playing our best when we shouldn't," Abplanalp said. "We still have those two losses, but in the postseason, those don't matter.
"Just one game at a time and knowing that we can face adversity and challenges and those lulls in games and that we can find a way."
Columbus East (14-17), a young team with just one senior, was a bit of a surprise opponent but one they knew well. And South knew how to deal with an underdog, taking away their hopes of an upset from the start and killing the Olympians with demoralizing long runs and strong finishes to each set.
"Whatever speed is on the other side of the court, we play our speed," Abplanalp said. "And I think that really showed first set."
Strong serving had the Olympians out of system early and often and plenty of free balls for South's offense to feast on. Set 1, South led 7-5 before going up 16-7 and burying Columbus East the rest of the way. The Panthers finished with no attack errors and no service errors with 14 kills, three aces and two blocks.
"We just really know how to set the tone, and we wanted to make sure we took care of business fast and early," senior setter Harper Rahn said.
Set 2, it was 5-5 when South scored the next nine points, went side-outs to lead 20-13 and scored five of the last six points. Set 3 was a bit closer, but South turned a 15-11 lead into a 20-11 advantage after an Everly Clark ace.
"It's fun to have momentum," Neely said. "When we're all having fun, it just shows."
South looked comfortable, and it showed.
"I think some of last year helped," Abplanalp said. "We got to play in this game and the first thing, we walk in, it's loud, there's a lot of people here. We weren't ready for that last year. We hadn't played in those conditions a lot.
"This year, we knew what to expect. But also this group, most of this roster played last season. We have experience. Not a lot rattles this team. But I also can't downplay how much hard work they've put in this season. They have worked their butts off and I think that's really showing here in this postseason."
There was just one small hiccup, coming after South took a 20-11 lead in the third. The Panthers could see the finish line and made four errors to let the Olympians score five in a row and force Abplanalp to use her first and only timeout of the night.
"That was definitely a little nervous," Reynolds said. "But I knew that we were going to be able to lock in."
In fact, Reynolds was the only who put the next swing away and the Panthers were back on track to celebrating a huge breakthrough with friends and family.
"Not much talking in the huddle. It was a pretty quick huddle," Abplanalp said. "Just reminding them, who you have as hitters and what's open and how to get out of that.
"They were still calm. We're good."
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington South volleyball wins first regional since 1977