Lake Zurich holds off Cary-Grove in 3
After Cary-Grove scored 5 straight points to tie Game 3 at 10-10, Lake Zurich girls volleyball coach Matt Aiello realized a timeout was warranted.
“I saw us not believing in each other,” said Aiello. “We weren’t trusting each other and we weren’t playing disciplined Lake Zurich volleyball. My timeout speech had nothing to do with volleyball.”
The Bears responded positively to Aiello’s fiery and passionate words of wisdom and ended the game and match on a 15-8 run and defeated the host Trojans 25-19, 13-25, 25-18 in nonconference action in Cary Thursday night.
In the pivotal third game, the Bears (17-2) grabbed the lead for good at 16-15 on a kill by Allie McIlwain. Mickenzie Andrews kill gave the Bears the hard-earned win.
“Cary-Grove is always good and it is always a challenge to play them,” said Aiello. “This is a great road win. We can be a scary team when we are on.”
McIlwain and Mallory Parsons led the victorious Bears with 13 kills each.
The highlight for the evening for the Trojans (10-8) came in Game 2 when the hosts dominated the visiting Bears.
With the score tied at 9, the Trojans seized control with 8 straight points to take a 17-9 advantage. Junior middle blocker Morgan Lee spearheaded the 8-0 run with 3 kills and a block. Senior middle blocker Kayli Trausch and senior setter Meghan Seymour collected 2 kills each.
Lake Zurich whittled the Cary-Grove lead to 18-13 on a kill from Sydney Glover. Those would be the last points the Bears would score in the game.
With Erin Olson serving 2 aces and collecting a kill and Trausch and Abby Schebel delivering 2 kills each the Trojans scored the final 7 points to knot the match at 1-1,
The youthful Trojans were led by Trausch and Schebel with 10 kills apiece. Lee collected 5 kills with 3 blocks while Olson had 3 kills and 3 aces and Seymour delivered 22 assists and 3 kills.
“Lake Zurich is a very very good team,” said Cary-Grove coach Patty Langanis. “They run a very fast offense. It was a good match to play because there isn’t the pressure of playing in a conference match. They really jelled in the third game and overpowered us a little. We are a young team learning every match. Even though we lost we took a step forward tonight.”