SMWC handed IU East its second River States Conference loss with an impressive comeback victory Tuesday at Hamilton Arena, improving to 14-4 in the conference to likely clinch a home match to open RSC Tournament play next week.
SMWC battled back to win 26-28, 20-25, 25-18, 25-23, 15-12.
Seniors played a big role on Senior Night. Hannah Zuege's 10^th kill of the night put SMWC ahead 14-12 in the fifth set and senior Zula DeJesus finished off the match with her first ace of the night.
The Pomeroys improved to 5-2 this season in five-set matches, winning for the third straight time in matches that go to five. This, however, was the first time the Pomeroys came from down 2-0 to win.
Zuege had five of her 10 kills in the fourth and fifth sets. Senior middle Morgan Krause had a match-best seven blocks to go with her nine kills.
"Very fitting for those three kids. Their sole focus was to get better this season and rally as one," coach Ashley Harris said. "Very proud of them. It's a match that will be talked about for many years."
Krause said the Senior Night adrenaline didn't hurt in sparking the comeback.
"The first two sets were really rough, but we had a talk after the second set, 'it could be our last time playing at home, let's get it together. It's a memorable Senior Night for sure," Krause said. "It would be amazing to play at home (next week). Everybody came together. I'm just super proud of us."
SMWC was in position to take the opening set. The Pomeroys took a 5-0 lead before IU East (24-7, 16-2 RSC) battled back. Kills from Morgan Krause and Lillian Breaux helped SMWC take a 19-16 lead. Karla Melendez made it 21-18 with one of her team-high 18 kills, and the freshman outside added another for a 23-21 Pomeroys' lead.
The Red Wolves came out of a timeout to score three of four and tie it at 24-24. Two service errors gave IU East a window to put the set away and Reece Shirley set up Brooke Lepper for back-to-back kills to give the Red Wolves the set.
The Pomeroys struggled to gain any momentum back in the second set before finally hitting their stride in the third.
Freshman right-side Masa Pesic had four of her 12 kills in the third, coming up big during a key stretch as SMWC took a 15-11 lead. Krause finished off the set with a kill.
The Pomeroys took that momentum into the fourth and fifth and led almost the entire way to the victory.
"We just finally started to get our groove," Harris said. "It truly was a full team effort. Everyone was just relying on everyone to do their jobs. Our blocking finally got going."
The offensive stats being spread among many attackers was a welcome sight for Harris and her team. Madison Hill also had nine kills with a .320 hitting percentage from the right side. Melendez's 18-kill performance was a season-high. Ariana Cruz (19 assists) and Alexis Keoho (25 assists) spread the ball around to help accommodate the strong all-around performance.
"That's something we've been working on, trying to get multiple players on at the same time. Our setters trusting our hitters a little bit more and our hitters expecting to get the ball sent to them every time," Harris said.