By Marissa VanWingen, The Times Citizen
Prior to facing off in the Region XI Tournament quarterfinals, Northeast Community College had swept Ellsworth Community College in two earlier meetings.
With the season on the line, the hosting Hawks were able to hold off a surging Panther squad and advance to play Iowa Central on Saturday with a four-set victory 25-16, 15-25, 25-17, 25-21.
In the opener, NECC (25-14) took a 4-3 lead and then went on a run to go on top 14-8. That forced a Panther timeout, but the difference continued to swell and was 18-9. Ana Cuartero's kill ended the scoring drought, but ECC (19-13) could not claw their way back, dropping the game 25-16 on a hitting mishap.
Game two was all Panthers. Back-to-back Elitsa Peneva aces gave ECC the 4-1 edge. The lead grew to 9-2 with three hitting errors in a row by the hosts. The visitors were quickly on top by 10 (13-3) with an Adriana Tiedt service ace and a bad set by the Hawks. The lead remained double digits as the Panthers scored the final two points of the game with a blocking error and a Natalie See kill to even the match at 1-1 with the 25-15 decision.
NECC held the advantage in the third, with their largest lead at 7-2 on an ECC net violation. Juliana Nunez's hit put the visitors back on the board and they scored four out of the next five points including a Taylor Ross tip (9-5). The Panthers battled all the way back to get within one (13-12) on a miss communication by the Hawks, but could not complete the comeback. NECC scored seven in a row to pull away and eventually won 25-17 on a hitting error by ECC.
The fourth was the tightest game with the most even scores and lead changes. The two were tied 12 times and the lead was swapped after five of those knots. The largest separation ECC had was 7-4 on a Nunez hit. The Hawks came back to knot the score at 7-7 and the two would be even nine more times. The final Panther lead was 20-19 on a hit that sailed long before a Mya Hedstrom kill off the block made it 20-20. A double block by Avery Couch and Jayda Christensen allowed the hosts to take the crucial two-point advantage.
The last ECC point of the season was a Cuartero hit to get within one, 22-21, before Hedstrom's kill shot set up match point. A kill outside of the pins ended the game and the Panthers postseason run.
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Region XI Tournament
Wednesday at Norfolk, Neb.
ECC: 16| 25| 17| 21
NECC: 25| 15| 25| 25