PINE BUSH – Games where Pine Bush faces off against Horseheads have become an area-sports fixture with a feeling. Back in '03, Pine Bush knocked off Horseheads in the regionals. Two years ago, Horseheads beat them in the regionals at Elmira. And just last year, they defeated the Lady Bushmen in a controversial game in the semis. That one featured a boy on a team of girls and produced some media interest all across the region.

On Sunday, November 9, the Lady Bushmen arrived at the regional finals at New Paltz with a 19-0 record, and there was Horseheads (16-1) waiting for them, albeit without a boy on the team this year.

Megan Lesczynski, Pine Bush's leader and outside shooter said. "We went into this game knowing that we were the better team. We just had to play our game, play Pine Bush Volleyball, and we could win it."

In the first set, though, while the Lady Bushmen started strong, Horseheads caught them at 6-6, took the lead, and kept it up to 16-16, then jumped out in front again and won 25-18.

Coach Lori Kachelmeyer wasn't fazed. "I told them 'this is your game, we're going to have fun.' I told them to forget what the score is, because we're going to get to 25 first."

The second set saw Pine Bush take the early lead again, but Horseheads caught them at 11-11 and took a brief lead until the Lady Bushmen surged past them to 17-14 and then kept the lead through to the end, winning 25-23.

In the third set, Horseheads broke it open in the middle, got out to a four point lead, then to 20-14 and won it 25-18.

The pressure was on, you might have thought, but in the fourth game, the Lady Bushmen came back strong. They had the lead at 11-7 and they built on it and ran it out 25-15.

This all set up an exciting final set with everything to play for. Coach Kachelmeyer said afterwards, "We stayed focused. I think we all knew that we should have won last year. I don't want to blame it on the boy or anything like that, but that was our feeling. So in this game there was a different attitude. We were really ready to play and we weren't going to give this up."

That fifth set was a ding-dong battle, with the lead see-sawing on some strong service runs. Horseheads led 12-7 at one point, but then Kristen Loney responded with a run of seven service points, and Nicolette Gebhardt hit a couple of thunderous kills to keep it going. That left Pine Bush ahead 15-12, but Horseheads weren't done yet. They came back, took the lead again, and pushed out to 22-18. At that point, the Pine Bush side of the athletic center had fallen silent and the Horseheads fans were cheering loud and long. Things looked dark for the girls from the Town of Crawford. Was it going to be three in a row for Horseheads over Pine Bush?

The Lady Bushmen regrouped, found their game again, and took the next three points, including kills from Loney and Lesczynski. Next, each team lost service, the score was 22-23, and there was Megan Lesczynski to serve for the set, the match and revenge for last year.

Talk about tension — at this point you really could have cut it with a knife. The Horseheads fans had gone quiet, the Pine Bush fans were cheering (nervously), and the pressure was all on Lesczynski.

Fortunately, Pine Bush's No. 7 was ready for it. "I was happy to be there. There's pressure in serving, but by that point I just knew we could do it."

Nicolette Gebhardt made a kill to tie the score at 23. Kristen Loney and Megan Maisonet combined to block a kill attempt by Horseheads' Whitney Van Houten and Lesczynski put her last serve down the line between the Horseheads' back row and they couldn't keep it in play. With the game over, celebrations began.

"This was the game we'd worked for all season," said Lesczynski, when the frenzy had calmed down just enough so she could talk to reporters. "Basically, we cut down on the errors and we played the Pine Bush game."

Coach Kachelmeyer said, "There was some vindication here, I think. They ignored the score and just went after them. Kristen Loney was phenomenal today; her serving got us back in the game. Nicolette is a great player, her practicing all this week was just scary. If she decides that she believes in herself, nobody can stop her. Megan Maisonet made some critical plays too. And, of course, Megan Lesczynski is a great leader for the team. The kid never gives up, and she went after them. She didn't care if she got blocked, didn't get down on herself, just kept going."

"I'm just so excited," said Lesczynski. "We're going to states!"

This weekend Pine Bush will join Lindenhurst, West Irondequoit, and Baldwinsville in the State Final Four at Glens Falls Civic Center.

Nicolette Gebhardt had 21 kills, Megan Lesczynski had 19, Kristen Loney had 14. Gebhardt and Lesczynski had 20 digs apiece and Marina Field had 36. Megan Maisonet had 50 assists and 9 digs.

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