South Elgin volleyball trips up Bartlett

Being forced to juggle the lineup isn't the ideal way to enter a rivalry match, but the South Elgin girls volleyball team made it work Tuesday in a 25-17, 25-19 victory on Bartlett's Senior Night.

With starting middle hitter Sarah Hallas away on a six-day college trip, coach Joni Plach played usual right side hitter Rachel Priore in the middle and called up junior Jasmin Duncan from the JV team.

Priore is comfortable in the middle since she plays the position during the club season. She finished with 4 kills and 3 blocks to help South Elgin improve to 14-11-1 overall and 3-4 in the Upstate Eight Valley.

"It was pretty exciting," said Priore, a junior. "We work really well together so it wasn't that big a deal to move around."

Bartlett (7-20, 2-5) had the look of a team poised for an upset when the Hawks jumped to a 7-1 lead in the first set. They scored 6 straight points on the serve of junior Andie Sobotka, whose 2 aces fueled the early surge.

Rather than call timeout, South Elgin coach Joni Plach let her players figure things out on the court. And that's exactly what they did. The Storm scored 3 straight points on Bartlett errors before Phoebe Duncan punished a spike to draw them within 7-5.

South Elgin caught the Hawks at 9-9 on senior Alyssa Miner's ace and later used an 8-0 run, keyed by a pair of Katie Innis aces, to break free from an 11-11 tie.

"I keep telling them this is their season and I'm looking for leadership out on the court," Plach said. "Hopefully, me not calling a timeout helped the girls be leaders on the court."

The Storm opened the second set with 4 straight points, including a block and an angled tip kill by Priore. The Hawks drew within 11-8 on a kill by Jennifer Kummerer, but another Priore block helped South Elgin win the next 4 points to take a 15-8 lead.

Senior Renee Rush sealed the victory with a soft kill to open space on match point. Rush, who plays right side and sets in the 6-2 scheme, finished with 4 kills, 8 assists and 2 digs. Innes also contributed 4 kills to go with 4 aces.

"Overall, our season has been fairly positive," Bartlett coach Katie Matt said. "We've had our ups and downs. Tonight was a little bit rough for us. I think we could have done a little bit more."