Stevenson battles without Baader
She’s missed, for sure. How will Stevenson volleyball survive without Rachel Baader?
The Stevenson star junior is nursing an injured thumb.
And after rival Libertyville blitzed the Patriots 25-17 in Game 1, it looked like Stevenson would not give Libertyville much of a battle on Wednesday night in Lincolnshire.
But then the trademark blocking of Stevenson kicked in. The Pats (11-4) came back to topple Libertyville 17-25, 25-18, 25-18 in North Suburban Lake play.
Leading the Pats with energy and some strong hits was junior Liza Pflugradt.
“I think were a little bit nervous coming out,’’ Pflugradt said. “We had to get our energy up.”
Stevenson coach Tim Crow felt his team didn’t put up much of a battle in Game 1.
“We were awful in the first game,’’ Crow said. “I wonder how we even scored 17 points. In the second game, we got some momentum and our blocking got better.”
Game 2 was still anyone’s to take. The Stevenson lead was 17-16 when Pflugradt and Jenna Radtke knocked down kills.
“We are a really big team,’’ Pflugradt said. “And we have a lot of chemistry. We knew how to read their block.”
With Jamie Baranowski serving, Stevenson put Game 2 away, aided by kills from Pflugradt and Emily Wings plus blocks from Christina Pritchett and Michelle Schroeder.
On the other side of the net, Libertyville coach Greg Loika wondered what happened to that first-game momentum.
“We felt pretty good after that first set,’’ Loika said. “But we gave away too many points. We didn’t play well enough to win.”
Game 3 again offered false clues. The Wildcats (8-5) soared to a quick 4-1 lead. Again the momentum didn’t last as Pflugradt’s serving and blocking from Schroeder and Anne Geocaris helped erase the Wildcats’ lead.
The Wildcats still had one more rally left. With Kerry Risley serving, Libertyville held a 15-13 lead. Radtke’s serving helped put the game away.
The junior middle hitter notched an ace and watched a kill from Schroeder as the Pats regained the lead for good.
Crow is interested to see how his team handles the absence of Baader.
“We will get better,’’ he said. “We can only worry about what we can control.”
The Pats certainly had good balance on offense. Radtke led all hitters with 8 kills. With 7 kills each came Pflugradt, Schroeder and Pritchett. Kay led the serving effort with 3 aces. McKenzie Kurth led the Stevenson defense with 17 digs. Kay added 9 digs.
Setters Baranowski (14 assists) and Kay (12 assists) split the 6-2 offense. Kara Maleski’s 4 blocks led the way for the Pats.
Libertyville setter Cindy Zhou notched 21 assists. Kristen Webb led Libertyville’s defense with 14 digs and Taylor Zant’s 6 kills led Libertyville.