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Cary-Grove goes outside to top Huntley

Allie Splitt demands a lot of attention in the middle of Cary-Grove's attack, and the senior drew extra blockers from Huntley in the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division matchup Thursday night.

Trojan outsides Allie Vasquez and Sarah Graham took advantage. Vasquez led the team in kills for the first time this year with 9, and Graham added 7 more in a 25-20, 25-10 victory that keeps Cary-Grove (22-4, 9-0) perfect in conference.

"I was really happy with our offense," Trojans coach Patty Langanis said. "We've been on our outside hitters. We're such a middle-driven offense. We need Vasquez and Graham to be more effective. They have literally gotten almost zero positives from me all season because we've been so hard on them to be better and score. Finally tonight both our outside hitters were taking care of the ball and when they do that it makes us a whole other team."

Erin Olson directed the attack in her usual fine fashion with an array of back sets and one-handed sets while always finding the open hitter for 21 assists to go with 11 digs and 3 kills.

Olson said the team learned a lot from two losses at the Mother McAuley tournament and a nonconference defeat to Geneva last week.

"Geneva and Mother McAuley taught us a lot," Olson said. "They were both extremely tough competition. We're right where we want to be after that."

Huntley (10-11, 3-4) pushed the Trojans in the opening set. They pulled even at 16, the 12th tie, before Olson set Madison Katchen for a go-ahead kill.

Back-to-back aces by Emily Schuster - one the Red Raiders let drop deep and the second that hit off the net and fell short - put Cary-Grove up 21-16. Graham added 2 more kills down the stretch, and Vasquez closed the set with a kill.

"Our goal the whole match was to try to take Allie Splitt out," Huntley coach Karen Naymola said. "I have to give us credit, but Cary-Grove is a strong team and all their other hitters stepped up tonight. We had a little trouble adjusting because we were so focused on the block in the middle."

The Trojans jumped to 4-1, 8-2 and 17-6 leads on the way to a rout in the second set. Splitt finished with 4 kills despite the Red Raiders' attention on her.

Allie Dion (10 digs, 5 kills) Erin Erb (9 kills) and freshman Sarah Zayas (9 assists) led Huntley.

"Game 1 we were serving aggressive," Naymola said. "Game 2 we were serving consistent but not as aggressive as we needed to. Cary-Grove is a good passing team."

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