By Fred Kroner
The Heritage High School volleyball team will try to hit the trifecta on Thursday (Oct. 28) at Martinsville.
The Hawks will be playing a Class 1A regional tournament match for the third night in a row. One more victory will earn the program a regional title.
Both schools in the finals advanced in a similar manner.
In the semifinals on Wednesday (Oct. 27), both Heritage and its upcoming opponent, Decatur Lutheran, lost the first set, which put them on the brink of having their seasons end.
However, both programs recovered and secured wins in the best-of-three format.
Heritage powered past Tri-County 17-25, 25-19, 25-16 on a night when both Bri Struck and Mary Roland broke single-season school records.
Decatur Lutheran, meanwhile, rallied to oust Casey-Westfield, 21-25, 25-17, 30-28.
The 5-foot-11 Struck registered a double-double with 18 kills and 12 digs as Heritage topped Tri-County in three sets for the second time in six days.
The kill total raised her senior totals to 394, breaking the school record held by former Indiana athlete Mariah Coleman, who had 389 kills.
The 5-foot-5 Roland recorded 24 assists in addition to three service aces.
Roland’s assist total increased her totals as a sophomore to 738. The previous one-season school standard of 726, belonged to Taylor Weinke.
Kiley Knoll and Torie Rothermel both supplied four kills against Tri-County. Knoll added six digs and Rothermel totaled three blocks.
In the quarterfinals on Tuesday (Oct. 26), Struck pounded 16 kills and Adena Paul served four aces as Heritage opened the postseason by topping Villa Grove, 25-9, 25-15.
The third-seeded Hawks (24-8-1) return to action on Wednesday (Oct. 27) at 6 p.m. at Martinsville against second-seeded Decatur Lutheran in the regional championship match.
Heritage is seeking its fourth-ever regional crown in volleyball and the first one since 2013, which was the school’s third in a three-year span.
Decatur Lutheran is chasing its second-ever regional crown in volleyball. The other one was in 2007.
The schools played once in the regular season with Lutheran winning in three sets on Oct. 14. Since that setback, Heritage has won five consecutive matches.
