The magical season continues.
Kennedy rallied to defeat Northside 25-18, 27-29, 25-16 in the first Public League semifinal match Thursday at Kenwood.
“It feels really amazing to get there,’’ Kennedy senior Melissa Mazur said. “We overcame the second game and did it. ‘’
With the win, the Crusaders will be making their first trip to the Public League final, something that the senior class won four years ago as members of the freshmen team.
“This was our goal since freshman year. To win city both our freshman year and go out with it senior year,’’ Mazur said.
But to get that crown, they’ll have to face four-time defending champion Young.
Kennedy (22-4) came out looking like a team that both hadn’t lost a game to a Public League opponent, extending a 11-8 first-game lead to an insurmountable 20-11 one. The Crusaders got four aces in the run.
Game 2 looked like it would be much of the same, as Kennedy rushed out to a 10-4 lead. But Northside didn’t back down and jumped out to a 16-14 advantage.
The Mustangs were able to win the second game thanks to a kill by Natalia Cuevas and an ace by Isabelle Banez.
“There was no doubt about our play at all after the second game,’’ Mazur said. “We had our confidence and knew that maybe we got tired, but never discouraged.’’
“They have a really good setter who threw us off. We had to learn to read her but it looked like we got a little too excited. The pressure was on us to do it, but we finished it.’’
Northside was able to keep the third game close but after Grace Jurevis’ kill broke an 8-8 tie, the Crusaders didn’t look back.
“We saw them celebrating after they beat us that game, thinking they had a chance to beat us, but we thought ‘no you don’t,’’’ Mazur said.
Mazur led Kennedy with 13 kills, while Nebal Alghoeh had 10 and Jurevis six. Megan Kennedy had six kills to lead Northside (14-14-3), while Cuevas and Lauren McManus each had five.
