Sailors stage remarkable rally

VERMILION — There's something in the air this time of year for Vermilion volleyball. Call it a vibe, an aura, a swagger. Whatever it is, it made itself felt on the final day of the regular season. The Sailors dropped the first two sets to Norwalk, then surrendered the first six points in the third, too. But somehow, someway, they came all the way back. "Vermilion volleyball, that's what we live for," junior Peyton Logsdon said. "... We wanted to win our last regular season game for our seniors and for us." Vermilion's win, by scores of 16-25, 16-25, 26-24, 25-13, 15-6, was not the most epic, or even second-most epic five-set victory in the recent vintage of this program. But it was the most notable for this new group, the first one to come after the two greatest teams in program history. "Today, I told them, you started from the bottom but then came all the way back up," Vermilion coach Maddie Nader said. "As long as we're going up, that's perfectly fine with me." The Sailors (12-10) saved their best win of the regular season for last, and so they'll go into a Tuesday home sectional semifinal against Bellevue with about as much momentum as they could possibly have. "Bellevue was here, I'm excited that they got to see us," senior Aubree Kennedy said. "Because it's like, we're coming for you." For two sets, the on-paper reality of the SBC Lake Division co-champions visiting Vermilion played out on the court. For those two sets, Norwalk was better, and it really wasn't all that close. The Sailors seemed to be in scramble drill most of the time, rarely able to stay in-system and get clean swings. Lucy Schlotterer whacked seven kills in the second set, and it looked like the Truckers would make it a pretty straightforward afternoon. Norwalk (16-6) also celebrated the 1,000th career dig for junior Mac Wineman after she entered the day needing nine for the milestone. "Take a look at her jersey, there's holes in it," Norwalk coach Sarah Kipp said. "That kid works hard. She is a joy to coach. Just works tirelessly to get better." The match looked even more cut-and-dry when freshman Sawyer Wineman went on a 6-0 run to start the third set with three aces. Vermilion called timeout, and in the huddle, the Sailors decided to throw out the heavy Norwalk scouting report they had installed in their minds during Friday's practice. They were thinking too much. It was time to just play. "I don't think I'm ever gonna do that (scouting) again," Nader said. "... We were like, 'Wipe everything that we told you. Just play like you.' I don't even know who that team was the first two sets." Vermilion rattled off a 6-0 run of its own to tie the set, and the Sailors played only five points the remainder of the match as the trailing side. "We talked so well during the third and fourth sets," Logsdon said. "Our back row was telling us where to hit. My dad told me where to hit. We were all telling each other where to hit. We said that it was quiet, and we needed to be the music, we needed to be loud." Much of the tone-setting came at the net from Kennedy and Meagan Rini, two seniors. They're the duo that played the most of any of this bunch on Vermilion's 2022 repeat league and district championship team. Rini and Kennedy are often secondary options offensively for this squad, behind the big swings of Claire Bartlome (14 kills, 14 digs) and Logsdon (11 kills, 14 digs). But on Saturday, the seniors forced themselves into the picture. "They're our blockers," Logsdon said. "They're there to finish the job." They both blocked. They both slammed a few kills and tipped a few others. They even served aces, the rare potent-serving middle blocker tandem. "They were huge," Nader said. "That's very different for us to have two middle leaders. For them to step up in different ways today, just talking to the girls and encouraging them and playing super well, they did everything I could've asked them to." Rini had four kills and an ace in the third set, including the smack to the floor that staved off match point trailing 23-24. She finished with nine kills, five aces and four blocks. "We knew we weren't playing Vermilion volleyball in the first two sets," Rini said. "We all just brought our energy and got really excited for everything." A hit out of bounds, followed by a kill from Logsdon, gave Vermilion the third 26-24 and sent all the energy toward the Sailors. "I don't even know how to explain it," Logsdon said. "I literally was screaming and I couldn't hear it." Vermilion never felt pressure in the fourth, jumping out to leads of 6-1, 8-2, 13-4 and 20-9. Bartlome and Logsdon showed their prowess the most in that frame, serving with power and flying through the air for a combined eight kills and three aces in the fourth. Kennedy, a lefty, sent it to the fifth with a strong swing from the right side. On the day, she had seven kills and a pair of aces. "We just said, let's get out of our heads," Kennedy said. "We just had to play our game and focus on what we can do." Norwalk scored the first two points of the fifth, and it was tied 3-3, but then Vermilion pulled away. Bartlome had a kill and an ace. Kennedy had a kill, a block, another kill and then an ace. Cali Wilson ripped a kill, too, before a Logsdon kill and Rini block pushed the Sailors to 14. The final point was a bit anti-climactic, all things considered, as Norwalk couldn't quite get the ball back over the net. But regardless of the type of point, it was one that had seemed so unlikely just an hour earlier. "I've played with Meagan Rini and Gracie Porter since I was in seventh grade," Kennedy said. "I don't want to let them down. I don't want to let down my teammates, and I know they don't want to let me down, either. We've worked way too hard to just let it go." Instead of going into the tournament's opening week having been swept twice in three days, Vermilion seized a win that could springboard it to bigger things. There aren't any easy opponents in the Sailors' half of the D-II Seneca East District bracket — a win over Bellevue would lead to 3-seed Shelby, and then another win could mean 2-seed Norwalk for a rematch in the district semifinal. But there's really no way to head into the postseason with a better vibe than this one, and it's officially the time of year to never count out the Sailors. "We are at our lowest of Vermilion volleyball in those first three sets," Logsdon said. "But those last three sets, we were at our best."