Bearcats get title on 4th try

Updated: May 9, 2012 9:56AM

VALPARAISO — For the fourth year in a row, Wheeler was in a regional championship.

But this time, the story won’t end there.

The Bearcats needed all five games to do it, but Wheeler captured the program’s first regional championship with a nail-biting 3-2 win over Rochester.

“It’s unreal,” said Wheeler head coach Alisha Polite, with a grin spreading across her face. “Way back in the summer, this team set a goal: to accomplish things that no one else in our program had done. I’m just so completely proud of these girls; they really bought into playing as a team.”

“It’s just unreal,” she repeated.

“There’s nothing better than being part of this team,” said Wheeler senior Whitney Maas, still clutching the game ball. “We knew what we had to do and we just executed.”

Heading into the fifth game, Polite went with “a gut feeling,” as she called it, and rotated her lineup so that Wheeler standout Shannon Doyle would not be hitting against Rochester star Katlyn Sawyer.

Doyle responded with seven of her team’s 15 points in Game 5, leading the Bearcats to victory.

“I knew I had to step up … but we owe a lot to our coach,” said Doyle, who had a game-high 34 kills. “She’s done an awesome job all year for us.”

The night didn’t start well for the Bearcats, as they dropped Game 1 25-17.

But Wheeler responded to capture the next two games, including a nail-biting Game 3 that featured 14 tie scores.

Rochester fought back in Game 4, earning a 25-23 victory to force the decisive fifth game.

Moments after posing for a team picture, Doyle said the reality of the moment still hadn’t arrived.

“It’s crazy to think that, of all the teams we’ve had here, we are the first one to do this,” she said. “I’m ecstatic right now and I can’t wait for semistate.”

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