SALEM — A bad night from the Effingham Flaming Hearts is still good enough to win an Apollo Conference championship.

    And as hard as they tried to spoil the Hearts’ Senior Night party on Tuesday, the Salem Wildcats met the same fate as all 13 of Effingham’s Apollo Conference opponents this year — defeat.

    The Hearts defeated the Wildcats 25-20, 27-25 in a two-set match with more drama than necessary thanks to Effingham’s trouble keeping the ball in bounds. But despite the nail-biting moments — including a first-set 8-0 hole and a see-saw end to the second set — the Hearts are just glad to get the conference title monkey off their backs.

    “We were kind of ranked as the underdog through it all, at the start of the season, and we’re glad that we were finally able to come out on top,” senior setter Sam Zerrusen said.

    “It’s definitely a good way to start off the end of the season, the postseason,” senior Stacey Eskew added. “It’s a good momentum-builder.”

    For Hearts’ head coach Laurie Bohnhoff, it’s the worst she’s seen her team play against a conference opponent all year.

    “I didn’t think we played well, but we played well enough to win,” she said. “It was a really good win, but honestly, I just don’t think we played very well the whole night.”

    The Hearts (21-13, 13-0 Apollo) and Wildcats essentially traded streaks the whole night — including the 8-0 hole that the Hearts dug for themselves to start the first set. Almost all of Salem’s points in that streak came because of Hearts’ errors. Bohnhoff called timeout before it got out of hand, and Effingham turned the tables for a streak of their own, working it back to a respectable 8-6 score.

    Katie Nuelle had two key kills midway through the set, one of which tied the game at 11 and the next put the Hearts up for the first time at 12-11.

    Salem took another lead later, working it to 18-15 before the Hearts stormed back and eventually tied it at 18 following a Salem service error. Effingham took a 19-18 lead after Salem’s Katelyn Sager failed to get under the ball for a serve, and from there the Hearts were in the drivers’ seat. They gave up only two more points en route to their 25-20 win.

    “Honestly, I thought we kept our composure for as poorly as we were playing, we kept our confidence, and we just tried to play hard through it,” Bohnhoff said. “We seemed streaky, and I think it was more that Salem would play well for a little while then they wouldn’t play well.”

    Effingham took control of the second set thanks to improved hitting from  the front three of Zerrusen, Kayley Stice and Brittany Worman.

    But that didn’t last long. A 10-3 lead suddenly evaporated when the ball didn’t seem to want to stay inbounds. Salem reeled off nine straight points and went up 14-10.

    “We served OK for parts of the game then toward the end we couldn’t get a serve in,” Bohnhoff said. “And we couldn’t hit a ball inbounds for a little while, either.”

    Of course, the Hearts worked their way out of the jam once again. They tied the game at 19 and the teams traded points until a wide serve from Salem’s Abbey Myer broke a 25-25 deadlock.

    The large Senior Night crowd of parents and friends caused a ruckus as Nuelle served the final point for the Hearts.

    “To have a close game with all the fans on Senior Night, it was exciting that way. But that doesn’t mean I like how we played,” Bohnhoff said. “It is Senior Night and there’s always a lot of emotion and adrenaline going... you never know how they’re going to play. And that was definitely the case tonight.”

    

        CUTLINE — EHS’s Hali Schlechte, far right, jumps into the arms of Katie Nuelle after the Hearts clinched the Apollo Conference volleyball title with a two-set win against Salem on Tuesday. Stacey Eskew (11), Bryn Clemens (12) and Sam Zerrusen join the fray.