The Park Hill South boys volleyball team showed their resiliency as they swept Park Hill in three straight sets on Thursday, May 1, at Park Hill High School.
Park Hill South completed the regular season sweep of their district rival, taking six of seven sets across two matches.
The Panthers showed early signs of domination when they returned Park Hill’s opening serve as Peter Ensminger provided the kill. Ensminger followed that with nine straight serves for Park Hill South as they went in front 9-0.
After trailing by double-digits, Park Hill got back within five, but it wasn’t enough as the Panthers took the first set 25-16. The Trojans gave a better account of themselves in the next couple of sets.
After going down 6-3 in set two, Park Hill fought back to tie it 6-6 when Jaxyn Hartman served an ace to the backcourt. Both teams exchanged leads numerous times until Park Hill established a 23-20 advantage before the Panthers called a timeout.
Park Hill South came out of the timeout and scored a couple of straight points but then faced set point when the Trojans answered, putting Park Hill ahead 24-22. The Panthers kept clawing, narrowly escaping a set two defeat after a Park Hill block was desperately rescued by Eddie Her before Kaori Donham eventually ended the lengthy rally with a kill and pushed South to a four-point scoring streak to take set two 26-24.
Park Hill South had better control in the third set but allowed Park Hill to stay around. With the Panthers up 24-21, Park Hill found success out of a timeout as they extended the game a few more serves until dropping the third set 25-23.
The Panthers improved to 18-8-2 in their debut season, avoiding a third consecutive defeat. Park Hill lost its fourth straight, dropping its record to 5-13-1.
After concluding the season with a pair of matches this week, No. 2-seeded Park Hill South and No. 3-seeded Park Hill will meet one final time for a win-or-go-home matchup in the Class 1 District 15 semifinal on Tuesday, May 13.