Grayslake C. able to bounce Buchman, Grayslake N.

One of the players on the best 4-15 volleyball team in the state has a fancy serve. It travels a few inches over the net and that causes trouble for many a team.

Her name is Kendall Buchman, and on Tuesday night she gave host Grayslake Central a few scares. The Rams (9-10) rallied from a set one loss to post a 19-25, 25-19, 25-21 victory on rivalry night.

"My club coaches taught me my serve,'' Buchman said. "It's very technical. We play hard every match. It never feels like we lose."

The Rams had handled the Knight (4-15) in a recent tournament and may have felt North wasn't going to be much competition on this night. And with 6-foot-2 middle Allie Daul dominating at the net, it first looked like this thinking would work out just fine for Central.

And then Buchman went into serve.

Three aces later, the Knights had secured the set one lead for good.

"I didn't expect this,'' said Central middle Taylor O'Neill. "North played really great defense."

The Rams woke up just in time. In set two, Marie Gerbasi led off the service for Central. The junior served 6 straight points. She had help from kills from setter Juliana Frusolone (31 assists) and Daul (11 kills).

"North's defense is some of the best I've seen this year,'' said Central coach Jason Janczak. Jim's (Sarver) focus on defense is working. We were a little shell-shocked early."

Set two was no runaway. North came back from the early deficit to claim a lead. With Nicole LeBaron serving, North lead cut the lead to 16-14.

However by this time, Central junior, Hayley Peterson, began to find the range on her power hits.

"Central is very strong offensively,'' Buchman said. "And they play scrappy defense."

The decisive third set was up for grabs even late in the match. With LeBaron back on the line, she got help from two kills from Kayla Culpa and the North lead was 14-12.

"We had beaten them easily in the tournament,'' Dahl said. "But they are much better than their record. We played with a lot more intensity. We just needed to wake up."

Again, Peterson took over the match with some devastating hits that even the Knights couldn't dig up.

Peterson had 9 kills. O'Neill added 6 kills and 2 blocks. Dahl led the Rams with 6 blocks.

"That's a very good 4-15 team,'' Janczak said. "But when you play a rival, records don't mean anything."

Stefani Keilwitz and LeBaron led the North attack with 5 kills each.

"It was an awesome match,'' said North coach Jim Sarver. "It's tough to play that well and not win."