Highland spikers make new coach’s debut successful

The Highland High School volleyball team made new coach Katelyn Hagarty’s debut a winning one with a spirited 28-26, 25-20 victory over visiting Belleville East in a raucous gym in both teams’ season openers Tuesday, Aug. 22 at HHS.

“I am so proud of them, they worked their tails off out here,” Hagarty said. “I think it’s a really good starting point and now the girls know what it takes to beat good teams. I really think this is a big step for us in the direction that I want the program to go. I hope we can continue to build from here and I am just really excited for the season now.”

Highland trailed 3-0 to open the match before rallying to score 13 of the set’s next 15 points to take what appeared to be a commanding 13-5 advantage. The Bulldogs still led by a comfortable margin at 20-13 before the Lancers staged a rally of their own to score 11 of the game’s next 14 points to get to within one point of taking the game at 24-23.

Belleville East had two other chances to close out the set but each time Highland had the answer to pull even before finally getting a shot of its own at 26-26. Sophomore Megan Vidmar then served an ace to give the Bulldogs their first game point and then senior right-side hitter Megan Sands put down an emphatic block to close the door on the first set, 28-26.

Highland junior middle hitter Claire Diercks was also key in the first set, logging six of her match-best eight kills.

The Bulldogs also jumped out to a big lead in the second game and never trailed.

Highland quickly grabbed a 5-0 lead to open the second set after junior Abby Beyer served five straight points including one ace, and junior outside hitter Jennessa Kimmle added a kill.

HHS extended its lead to 12-4 and still led 15-8 before the Lancers started to peck away. Belleville East got it all the way down to two points on three occasions, with the final time coming at 20-22.

But that would be the final point the Lancers would score as Kimmle slammed down two kills to help bring the match to a close.

“They never stopped, they never gave up and it was a true team effort,” Hagarty said. “Different people stood up and it was great all around. I felt like our passing was good, our setting was good, our hitting was great, and we had some awesome blocks there. We really had some momentum gainers and they played great.”

Kimmle finished with six kills and four digs and fellow outside hitter Megan Ramsey chipped in five kills and 10 digs.

Also for Highland, Vidmar dished out a match-high 23 setting assists to go with six digs, one kill and one ace; junior libero Emmy Nyquist recorded a match-best 17 digs; Sands registered two aces, two solo blocks, one kill and three digs; and senior middle hitter Morgan Mesle had one kill, one solo block and one block assist.

“I feel like everything we have been practicing they did,” Hagarty said. “They came out there to play and they played with heart and with intensity. I couldn’t ask for more from them. And the bench was into it too, all 10 of them. It was awesome. It all feeds off each other.

“Belleville East is a very loud and very scrappy team over there, and we raised our level of play and energy to match them. We stayed composed on our side.”

To add a nice cherry on top of the season-opening night, Highland won at all three levels. The junior varsity won in three sets under first-year coach Kristen Torre, a 2012 HHS graduate, while the freshman won in straight sets under Karen Twyford.

“Winning at all three levels is great,” Hagarty said. “It doesn’t matter who you beat but when you beat quality teams like that on the other side, it makes it that much sweeter.”

This story was originally published August 23, 2017 at 11:51 AM with the headline "Highland spikers make new coach’s debut successful."