Neuqua Valley rebounds, romps

Updated: October 25, 2011 9:00PM

With every long shot by her team, Neuqua Valley coach Kelly Simon’s consternation grew.

She waited as the No. 3-seed Wildcats composed themselves during Tuesday night’s Class 4A Plainfield Central Regional semifinal against No. 14-seed Plainfield North and eventually showed what they’re capable of.

Neuqua Valley rebounded from a 13-9 Game 1-deficit to rally for a 25-16, 25-9 victory to advance to Thursday’s 6 p.m. regional final against No. 9 Plainfield Central.

“Real shaky start,” Simon said. “I don’t think anyone anticipated that, but who does? Once we got on a roll then things started to fall into place.”

The Wildcats (20-16) gave Plainfield North (19-16) 11 of its first 12 points on unforced errors.

“I think we underestimated them coming in, so we didn’t try really hard,” Neuqua Valley middle hitter Leighanne Novak said. “Then we saw we were down and then up by just a few points. We really needed to step it up.”

Novak finished with six kills, two blocks and four aces, and Callie Huebener and Taylor McKeown added five kills each for the Wildcats.

Alex Marszalek and Madisen Zyburt led the Tigers with three kills apiece.

“They found their rhythm and we kind of faltered in ours,” Plainfield North coach Tracey Marshall said. “We came out strong and then lost focus mid-game and couldn’t get it back.”

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