Petaluma volleyball team rallies to reach NCS championship match

<p>After winning a game so fantastic the participants said they’d never experienced anything quite like it before, the Petaluma girls’ volleyball team remains on track to claim what its program never has before.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>Thanks to an improbable rally in a wildly entertaining third game, the top-seeded Trojans beat No.5 Maria Carrillo 18-25, 25-15, 34-32, 25-19 Wednesday night in the NCS Division II semifinals at Maria Carrillo.</p><p>Petaluma (26-8) will host second-seeded Redwood (26-6) in the section finals at 7 p.m. Saturday.</p><p>The Trojans have never won an NCS championship. But after somehow pulling out the third game against the Pumas (26-12), the two-time defending section champions, anything must seem possible.</p><p>“Toward the end of that game was the most exciting volleyball I’ve ever seen — high school, college or professional,” Petaluma coach Ben Stern said. “With both teams, it was just an automatic sideout. When it wasn’t an automatic sideout, there were just crazy digs and amazing rallies. It was fun to watch.”</p><p>Petaluma trailed 21-12 in the third game, but rallied to take a 24-22 lead.</p><p>Then things became, well, wonderful.</p><p>For starters, the Pumas staved off nine match points. Then they took a 31-30 lead only to have the Trojans fight off two game points. Finally, with fans exchanging disbelieving shakes of their head and even the linesmen seemingly smiling through their whistles, the classic ended on a pair of kills from Petaluma senior outside hitter and Sonoma State-signee Kaitlyn Dunaway (20 kills, 16 digs).</p><p>The stars shone in the third game as Dunaway had 10 kills, Petaluma senior outside hitter Maddison Eshoo, playing in her first match in two weeks due to sprained ankle, had 10 of her 19 kills and Pumas all-league outside hitter Caylie Seitz had seven of her 19 kills.</p><p>Said Eshoo, “That was pretty intense.”</p><p>But despite the emotion — and the high-pressure stakes — there were only a handful of errors in the final 25 points.</p><p>Dunaway punctuated many of her kills in the game by leaping in the air, stomping her feet on the court and letting loose with a primal scream.</p><p>“When it gets down to the fight like that, you’ve got to go down swinging,” Dunaway said. “Of course, no one wants to make an error, you’ve got to just go for it. If you don’t go for it, you’re not going to get the win.”</p><p>After the third game, the fourth match seemed almost lifeless in comparison. Maria Carrillo fell behind 13-9 and got no closer than three points the rest of the way.</p><p>“I have never been through that. I’ve never been through 34-32,” Pumas coach Jeff Nielson said. “But it was hard. Our girls really battled and I was really proud of them for fighting as hard as they did. But that one was really tough to come back from. We not only lost 34-32, but we lost a big lead.”</p><p>Senior setter Hayley Ross had eight kills and 44 assists and senior defensive specialist Jenna Bailey had 15 kills for the Trojans.</p>