After dropping the first set to the Section V champion, Aquinas Institute, the Section VI representative Hillbillies rallied off three straight victories at Lake Shore High School 21-25, 25-17, 25-20, 26-24 to advance to a regional matchup at Section IV on Saturday.

“We have amazing fans,” Fredonia head coach Amanda Krakowiak said after the victory. “Amazing parents, amazing support. To the people who have been coming to these last few games at Lake Shore we really appreciate them and they have definitely fueled our girls and motivated them.”

Fredonia did not look like itself in the first set as it struggled to adjust to the style of volleyball that the Little Irish brought, failing to string together points and making uncharacteristic errors. However, despite not playing their best volleyball the Hillbillies still found themselves in a close game until the Little Irish pulled away with late 4-point and 3-point runs.

“A little slow start tonight,” Krakowiak said. “We knew going into the game that they play a different style of volleyball than we are used to seeing in our league and what we’ve seen the last couple of playoff games. It does take a little bit for us to adjust to that style of play where the balls are getting rolled over, tipped over.”

OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms Fredonia’s Madeline Saunders (1), Katherine Fortna (3) and Lydia LaBarr (4) celebrate following a point during their Class B sub-regional win over Aquinas on Wednesday evening at Lake Shore High School.

In the second set, Fredonia started slow and if things continued the Little Irish would have likely taken a commanding 2-0 lead, but then Londyn Wilmot stepped up to the service line for the ‘Billies.

“In that second set I kept encouraging the girls,” Krakowiak said. “I said ‘don’t give up, be relentless, play with your heart’ and we got to the point where it was about tied I believe and Londyn (Wilmot) went up to start serving.”

Trailing 15-12, Wilmot sparked an 8-point run that included four of her six aces on the night, marking the turning point of the match for Fredonia.

“Those four aces really turned the momentum for us,” Krakowiak said about Wilmot’s serves. “We started to see some success, we started to get some kills. … Volleyball is a very emotional sport, at least in my experience with it and trying to encourage the girls that every moment you can take all the small successes and let them fuel your fire. We’re trying to stress, get that one small thing, build on it, get another one and then get another one after that. When we started to see some of that the crowd got into it and the girls really feed off the crowd.”

After Wilmot’s run, Fredonia closed out the second set with ease 25-17 and looked much more confident moving forward.

OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms The Hillbillies’ Londyn Wilmot sends a ball over the net.

Fredonia carried that momentum into the third set and its offense started to hit stride with several hitters getting in on the action. The Hillbillies were led by Wilmot’s 17 kills on the night, and she added nine digs and one block on defense. Kaylen Rollins contributed another nine kills from the outside, scored three aces and had 10 digs. Elizabeth Morris also had nine kills and 16 digs. Maddie Saunders once again set up the attack with 36 assists and 15 digs on top of her three aces and five kills, while Lydia LaBarr made 17 digs and Katherine Fortna added six kills.

“We were having a hard time today with that setter-hitter connection,” Krakowiak said. “We were having good hits, but it wasn’t the same type of kills. The Aquinas defense did a really good job of digging up a lot of our hits. We kept trying to battle and battle, but once we started to find that connection and got that confidence back and got the gym hyped up things started going in our direction.”

Playing consistent volleyball, Fredonia looked in control all the way to the 25-20 finish in the fourth set and was one win away from advancing in the state tournament.

Fredonia had its best start in the fourth set, jumping up 6-1, but then it looked like the Hillbillies got a little ahead of themselves as Aquinas battled back.

“It’s almost like the girls kind of felt a little safe,” Krakowiak said about the final set. “I think it was like 6-1 and it was like it’s OK if we get a little error we’ll get the next one. Well next thing you know it’s tied and you’ve got to do something about it now. So we’re just trying to fight and stay in the right mental mindset that we’re going to keep bringing our game and bringing the energy.”

Aquinas had three runs in a row of three points or more and just like that Fredonia was trailing 11-9. It appeared Fredonia snuffed out any rally from Aquinas with a 4-point run to regain the lead, but the Little Irish showed their heart with the season on the line.

Both teams were unable to build a lead until Fredonia closed in on the match at 24-21, but that was the end of the Little Irish. Fredonia conceded the next three points, losing its lead and making the need for another timeout.

Fredonia broke from the timeout with one goal on its mind and two quick points later the Hillbillies punched their ticket to a regional matchup with Section IV champion Windsor on Saturday at Candor High School at 3 p.m.

“I’ve only had a little bit of an opportunity to look at that,” Krakowiak said about Saturday’s regional. “We want to take one game at a time so we really wanted to focus on tonight first. I believe that’s going to be a more competitive game. The teams that played the other day, it was very intense, it went five sets. They’ve got some bigger hitters, some harder servers so I anticipate we do have our work cut out for us. We’re going to have to be on our game, minimizing mistakes and be really focused come Saturday.”