Dundee-Crown puts away Rolling Meadows

The Dundee-Crown girls' volleyball team already had some high expectations coming into the season, but it's beginning to look like more than just preseason hype. The Chargers registered their second straight win with an impressive 25-15, 25-12 nonconference victory over visiting Rolling Meadows (0-1) on Wednesday night.

D-C (2-0) dominated at the net with a 32-9 kill advantage. Sophomore Kailey Moll led the way for the Chargers with 10 kills. Emma Brant added 5 kills.

"We are very excited about the way we have started the season." Moll said. "We were connecting real well tonight with are passes and are setting."

After a somewhat sloppy win over Streamwood on Tuesday, D-C was much sharper against the Mustangs, connecting on 32-of-37 (85 percent) of their kill attempts. The Chargers also only had 8 other unforced errors.

"We were much better tonight," D-C coach Christine Hopkins-Muehl said. "We played at a quicker pace today and we are going to have to continue to pick the pace up even more as we get ready for some of the bigger, faster teams in our conference. We are trying to be realistic and practical when it comes to expectations. We still have a very young group of players, but they have some lofty goals."

D-C never trailed in game one. A 4-0 run early run, including an ace from Gina Pigano put the Chargers up 6-2.

An 8-3 run midway through Game 1 that started with back-to-back kills from Moll put the Chargers in control 18-12. D-C continued to pull away down the stretch. Moll recorded 6 kills in the opener.

The Chargers had to overcome a slow start in the second game as they fell behind 5-2 early on. Pigano helped D-C get back on track with a 6 point service run to give the Chargers an 8-6 lead. The Mustangs battled back to even the score 11-11 on an ace from Maddie Sellergren.

However, it was all Chargers from that point. Consecutive kills from Bre Novak and Frankie Cavallaro put the Chargers ahead 13-11. Moments later Cavallaro rattled off 11 straight points from the service line to close out the match. Moll had 4 kills during the closing run.

Cavallaro finished with 19 assists, 4 kills, and 3 aces.

"We just kind of said at the end of the second game lets get this done," Cavallaro said. "Our timing was much better tonight with our passing and plays at the net. We are excited the way the season has started and very excited for conference to start."

Hannah Mickey had 4 kills and 2 blocks for Rolling Meadows. Megan Mich had 6 assists.

"D-C put a lot of pressure on us at the net," Rolling Meadows coach Joe Di Silvio said. "And we didn't handle it very well. We knew coming in they were a good team. We are very young and will try to learn from this."