Tigers lose sectional heartbreaker in five sets

By JASON JUNO

sports@yourdailyglobe.com

MERCER, Wis. — Thursday night’s Mercer-Prentice sectional semifinal matchup lived up to the hype. Like the last two postseason meetings, it went all five sets. Unlike those two thrillers, though, Prentice came out on top, handing Mercer a heartbreaking 25-22, 21-25, 23-25, 25-20, 16-14 loss Thursday night.

The top two players in the Northern Lights Conference, Jenny Klopatek and Eiley Schoeneman, played their final game. And their coach, Robyn Schoeneman, ended her varsity coaching career with 400 wins and a nine-year regional championship streak.

They came so close to making it to the sectional final for the fourth time in that nine-year run.

“They say all good things have to come to end, I guess,” coach Schoeneman said. “It wasn’t for lack of trying, they played their tails off. I’m really proud of them. We played probably our best match of the season.”

The Tigers led the first set, something they did in all five of them. Prentice rallied for the 25-22 win, but Mercer proved resilient. They jumped out to a 16-5 advantage in the second set and held on for a 25-21 win. The third set was tight throughout. Klopatek tallied the final two points for Mercer and she dropped to the floor in celebration as Mercer held a 2-1 set advantage.

Mercer led early in the fourth set, but Prentice found some rare separation late and they won it 25-20.

Klopatek went down with a leg cramp that just wouldn’t loosen at the very end of that set. She came running back into the gym in time for the deciding set and the crowd chanted “Jenny! Jenny! Jenny!”

Schoeneman knew she’d come back.

“She had a very, very bad leg cramp,” she said. “Her calf was as solid as a rock. We were just trying to get it to loosen, I wanted to stick my thumb in the middle of it and relax it. She just needed a minute to stretch it out and get it relaxed. I knew it was still hurting her, but she wasn’t going down. I knew she wasn’t going to be done.”

It looked like they could ride that momentum to a victory as they broke out to a 10-5 lead. Klopatek gave Mercer their first point in the set and the two that got the Tigers to double digits.

It was Prentice’s turn for a run. They pulled within 10-9 and Mercer maintained that one-point lead until they tied it at 11. Prentice took 13-12 and 14-13 leads. Schoeneman got a kill to tie it at 14. Klopatek saved a point only for Prentice to get the point anyway as their all-state player Kali Heikkinen bounced it off the ceiling and onto the floor. Mercer didn’t get the next one over the net and Klopatek and Schoeneman dropped to the floor, this time in despair after the end of a great season and a fantastic career for both of them.

“It doesn’t even feel like we lost, it feels like we ran out of time,” coach Schoeneman said. “Maybe if that game would have been to 25, it would have been a different story because they would get up by a couple and we would battle back. That was their run.”

Schoeneman and Klopatek both finished the night with 23 kills. Klopatek added 17 digs and Schoenman 10.

“They always worked hard together, they’ve been doing this since second grade together for God’s sake,” Schoeneman said. “They better know how each other works. Rylinn (Rossi), too, she stepped up this year. Those seniors, I can’t praise them enough.”

Heikkinen, Prentice’s outside hitter, was tough to handle on their end.

“They get the ball to her every single time,” Schoeneman said. “I guess it goes to show one girl can run a court if you get her the ball enough times. We dug her quite a few times, but she just kept swinging. She was hitting balls that I couldn’t even imagine.”

Prentice lost in the sectional final 25-22, 25-13, 25-11 to Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran, which is the top seed at this week’s D-5 state tournament, which is made up entirely of private schools.

Mercer finished the season at 26-8; Prentice at 23-13.