he Lady Crusaders held off the scrappy Huskers in Game 1 and were inside a one spot of doing it again in Game 2, before Serena rallied to win in overtime. But with their backs against the fence in the deciding game, the Lady Cru got key service runs from Mackenzie McNamara and Katelyn McDonald, the latter on the effectiveness of middle Cordy Murphy's stellar play at the net, to get a 25-21, 27-29, 25-16 victory in their Serena Class 1A Regional semifinal.Murphy finished with 13 kills, Angela Elzer nine and Mikaela English seven to help send No. 2-seeded Marquette (21-9) into Saturday's 5 p.m. championship match with No. 1 seed Newark (24-10). The Lady Norsemen defeated MA 27-25, 25-22 in a regular-season match on Sept. 27 in Bader Gym."I have, I think, at least eight more gray hairs now," Marquette coach Mindy McConnaughhay said, jokingly moving her fingers on the role in her hair. "The final time we played them, they had an off night. I told our girls they'd be tougher tonight because they're so scrappy, and they were. They're a full team and fought for every single point . They touched the orb around and worked around our stuff and kept us off-balance.It was definitely not our best game of the year, but a lot of players came up big when we required it at the end."What won it for us? I believe desire. At the end of Game 3, when they called that last timeout, I asked them how bad they wanted it, if they were set for this temper to be over. They said, 'no,' so I said "'Play like it,' and they did."To get to the night's finale, Marquette breezed past Paw Paw 25-5, 25-15despite 4 kills and 13 assists by Norma Castaldo and four more kills from Tara Hendren for the Bulldogs (3-26). The Lady Huskers then only as easily dispatched of LaMoille/Ohio 25-15, 25-11.That set the point for a thriller, as in Game 1 neither team had a head bigger than 3 points until the end. With MA up 21-20, Serena in a flurry blocked Elzer twice and strained the Cru's Allison Taylor to reach a lunging save on the second. The globe went across the courtyard to fellow sophomore Angela Evola, who tipped it over for the clutch point. Kills by English and Murphy then helped put it away.The last Game 2 also seemed decided when an English sideout kill and four McDonald points made it 24-21 Cru. However, after a Serena timeout, the last of seven MA service errors in that game gave the Huskers (22-12-1) new life, and they later took advantage by eventually breaking a 27-27 tie on back-to-back Marquette errors."The difference in Game 2 was that timeout," said Serena coach Meredith Eich. "I told the girls to relax, play our game and not let the crowd bother them, and to appear at their homage before they'd do anything. That helped them understand that if they made a mistake, it's not the end of the world, they could get back."But in the decisive nightcap, an Elzer kill even the stake at 7-7 before McNamara slipped two aces between kills by Evola and Elzer for an 11-7 Marquette lead. Two servers later, McDonald reeled off five points in a row - two on kills by Side and the final three on slams by Murphy - to widen the gap to an insurmountable 18-10."Aside from us losing, I couldn't have asked for a better three games," Eich said. "I told our girls to hold their heads high because those were the three most exciting games of volleyball I've always seen. It was only the played we made, the one-handed passes, coming from out of nowhere, it was awesome . Our defense was spectacular."
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