Neuqua Valley wins barnburner

Neuqua Valley volleyball coach Kelly Simon is still waiting for her Wildcats to play up to their talent.

At least they weren't lacking for drama Tuesday.

Neuqua staved off 7 game points in the second game to outlast Bartlett in a 31-29, 31-29 barnburner in Naperville.

The Wildcats (5-0, 1-0 Upstate Eight Valley) trailed 24-20 in the second game before springing the comeback.

Senior middle Brigid Campbell, who had a match-high 11 kills, put down a kill to tie the second game at 25-25 and another to knot the score 26-26. Finally, at 29-29 Leighanne Novak knocked down a kill and Callie Huebener smashed a spike off a Bartlett defender for match point.

"We realized that we gave them a lot of their points," Campbell said, "and finally we just said, 'Don't make any errors.' We knew we could come back. We all get along really well and we don't get down on each other. Even down 24-20 we said, 'We're going to win this.'"

Bartlett (4-5, 0-1) took its last lead of the second game at 28-27 on Jacki Gulczynski's fifth kill, but a Gulczynski two-hand attempt for the game sailed wide. The Hawks themselves withstood 4 Neuqua game points in the first game and battled back from down 11-5 in the second.

"It was a great match on both sides," Bartlett coach Brandon Mueller said. "We definitely gave that second game away. You're up 24-20 you gotta finish. We played great up to 24 points and then kinda let it slip away."

Neuqua won despite committing 12 service errors. Simon also pointed out that the Wildcats earned 46 points through kills or aces while Bartlett had to earn just 28.

"We were just off tempo," Simon said. "From our warmup all the way through, I felt like we were off tempo the whole match. That's frustrating. It's basic volleyball 101 that these girls teach in our little kids camp, some of our errors were there."

Through two-plus weeks, a relatively inexperienced Wildcats team has played just good enough to win. But Simon knows that won't cut it down the road.

"That's how it's been way too often," Simon said. "This is by far the best team overall I've coached in my career and we haven't stepped on the court and demonstrated it at all. The chemistry is great, the dynamic of the team is great, they have tremendous skills and none of that has been displayed to the level we're capable of."

Leighanne Novak had 6 kills, Kaitlynn Novak and Tori Knodell 5 for Neuqua. Megan Tompkins had 7 digs and 3 aces.

"We're definitely going to get some talking to after this one and some conditioning," Campbell said, "but overall it's way too exciting of a win to look down upon that."

Lauren Hartford had 6 kills and Kelly Kraft 5 for Bartlett. Two Kraft kills tied the first game at 24-24 as Neuqua was staring at game point and a Hartford kill knotted it at 29-29.

"We kept fighting. That was great to see," Mueller said. "It was a great fight. We just came out on the losing end. I learned a lot from this match - that our girls don't have quit in them. Our girls deserved to win this match just as much as Neuqua did."