One tough victory for Addison Trail against Willowbrook

No one can say that volleyball is not a physical sport.

Addison Trail's junior setter Anastasia Labadessa sliced open her right index finger diving for a ball, prompting a delay while droplets of blood were cleaned from the court. Moments later, Willowbrook's 5-9 rightside Danielle McNamara collapsed to the floor after injuring her right ankle attempting a kill and had to be helped to the bench.

And that was just warmups.

Labadessa applied a generous amount of adhesive tape to her finger, then distributed 28 assists along with an ace and a kill to lead the Blazers to a 25-18, 23-25, 28-26 victory over the Warriors in the West Suburban Gold on Tuesday in Addison.

Labadessa was not aware at first that she had opened a cut on her finger.

"I dove for a ball so it was bothering me, but I didn't pay attention to it," she said. "I thought there was glitter all over my face with all the posters (the gym was decorated with posters and balloons with both teams honoring breast cancer awareness), then I realized there was literally blood everywhere."

Addison Trail (10-7, 1-1) fell behind 9-2 early In Game 1 before rallying to pull within 16-12. The Blazers then closed the opening set on a 13-2 run behind Jessica Mell (12 kills, ace) and Sarah Petrbok (10 kills, ace, 18 digs).

"We had a rough start since we had to wait a little bit because one of their players got hurt and there was (my) blood everywhere," Labadessa said. "We ended up coming through, and by the second half of the first game we were earning more points."

Willowbrook (9-9, 1-2), which lost to Addison Trail in convincing fashion earlier this season at the Warriors' tournament, got 4 kills from Olivia Pennebaker (6 kills, ace) and three each from Jamie Chiapetta (9 kills, 2 aces) and Milena Sogura (6 kills) to take Game 2.

But Addison Trail opened a 19-12 lead in Game 3, then weathered ties at 24, 25 and 26 before putting Willowbrook away on consecutive kills by Jessica Mell.

"We just couldn't finish," Willowbrook coach Susan Bower said. "We missed Danny (McNamara). She is definitely a key player. She's been on varsity three years and she knows what she's doing. We had some bad serve-receive, too, but we persevered. The girls fought for every point."

Madeleine Weinhold had 15 assists, Emily Ligocki added 12 assists and Maya Bullock had 4 kills and 6 blocks for Willowbrook. Danielle Tulke had 5 aces for Addison Trail.

"It's all mental," Labadessa said about her team's slow start. "Volleyball's a mental game."

And occasionally very physical, too.