For all its success this fall, the Moline volleyball team never really felt comfortable matching up with Quincy, and it showed again in the Moline Regional final.

The third try was not a charm for the Maroons, ending their season Saturday with a 25-21, 25-14 loss to the Blue Devils at Wharton Field House.

Quincy (34-3), which moved to Tuesday's Normal Sectional semifinals, had 12 kills in the match. However, Moline (31-4) helped the Blue Devils with 12 attack errors, and seven serving faults.

"We've been working on our strengths and their weaknesses," said Quincy senior setter Hannah Kvitle, who is St. Louis University-bound.

"If you focus on a team's weaknesses, you're going to take them out of their game, and that's what we did. We knew them inside and out."

After a tight first game, Quincy registered five stuff blocks as a team and one kill error in Game 2, leading by a comfortable margin the rest of the way.

With nobody on Moline getting into true rhythm - Samantha Fournier led with seven kills, but also four errors - coach Tim Albrecht turned to junior Brittany Bush, who never had played volleyball until this past summer.

Bush obliged with an instant impact during Game 2, recording two kills and two block assists - igniting the Moline bench and crowd.

"She didn't even know how many hits there were on a side four months ago," Albrecht said. "For her to start where she did and come this far is satisfying."

Added junior middle hitter Marquisha Harris: "She's so big. I wish we could have had her last year so she would have been playing this year. Next year, she'll start."

But while Bush provided a nice spark plug, the Maroons needed a whole generator to combat the 6-footer-laden Blue Devils. Moline won the first game in this year's series - 25-23 on Oct. 15 at Wharton, when Harris rocketed a kill off Kvitle's shoulder on game point -- but Quincy was airtight after that, deflating its rival in six straight games.

"It seems like jitters and nerves got the best of us at some points," Harris said. "I think there were times that we tried too hard as a team, and it backfired."