South Elgin edges Streamwood

The South Elgin Storm girls volleyball team made it an exciting one against District U-46 rival Streamwood.

The Storm (7-8-1) defeated the Streamwood Sabres two games to none at South Elgin High School on Thursday by scores of 26-24 and 25-19. The Sabres (2-17-1) started Game 1 with a 3-0 run and had the lead for most of the game, but the Storm would have its own 3-0 run late to tie it up at 23 and eventually take the 26-24 victory.

“It was a good win,” said Storm head coach Joni Plach. “We weren’t ourselves against Lake Park the other day, so it was nice to come out with a win. Streamwood has definitely improved every year so we didn’t take this game for granted.”

Game 2 also started out with a 3-0 run for the Sabres, but the Storm came right back to tie the game 3-3. From there it was a back-and-forth affair until the Storm finished it off strong with a 5-0 run.

“I tell the girls to focus on themselves,” Plach said. “We are a team that plays as a team, which is good, but when one person is doing bad it’s like we’re all doing bad. They focus too much on the negatives. I told the girls to make sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to do on offense and defense and the rest of the team will follow.”

Alison Osborne put down a team-high 5 kills for the Storm. Corbin Kehe led the Storm with 6 assists and notched 2 aces, and Maggie Jakaitis had 5 assists while tallying an ace and 3 digs. For the Sabres, Hannah McGlone put down 5 kills, while Brittany Kemp led the team in assists with 9 and had 3 aces. Liz Simonelli led the Sabres with 14 digs.

Sabres head coach Lisa Vazzana has some key things to work on with the girls as they look ahead to their next game against Batavia.

“We had some difficulty with serve receive,” said Vazzana. “They had a few aggressive servers that were making big runs on us, and we struggled with it.”

Both teams will continue their schedules on Tuesday, as the Storm will host Bartlett and the Sabres will host Batavia.