Girls volleyball: Huntley, Cary-Grove prevail in regional semifinals

Sizzling, scorching and red hot.

All those adjectives aptly describe Huntley's stretch of play over the last few weeks.

Winning for the 10th straight time, the eighth-seeded Red Raiders ended No. 9 seed Jacobs' season with a 25-15, 25-15 semifinal win Tuesday at the Class 4A Jacobs girls volleyball regional.

Huntley (23-14) will play top-seeded Cary-Grove for the regional title Thursday at 6 p.m.

"We are playing excellent volleyball right now at the right time of the season," said Huntley coach Karen Naymola. "We came out with great intensity tonight and really served well. We missed only 4 serves which is great in a regional match. We look forward to playing Cary-Grove Thursday. They have a great program."

Alyson Dion, who served aces for the first 3 points of the match, paced the Red Raiders with 8 kills, 5 aces and 10 digs.

"It was good to get my serves in early," said Dion. "I wanted to set the tone early and get us off to a good start."

Senior Erin Erb also enjoyed a good performance for the winners with 7 kills, 3 blocks and 2 aces.

"We are picking the right time of the season to play our best volleyball of the season," said Erb. "Our communication on the court right now is excellent. This was a good win against a good Jacobs team."

With Dion serving 3 aces and Caitlin Thorelius collecting 2 kills, Huntley jumped to a 5-0 lead in Game 1. Behind 2 kills each from Katie Mahoney and Kyla Fitzsimmons, Jacobs (17-17) tied the game at 5.

Behind a pair of aces from Erb and 2 kills from Aleah Amelio, the Red Raiders ripped off 7 straight points to take a 12-5 lead.

Huntley took a 1-0 lead in the match on a kill from Sydney Holt.

In Game 2, holding a tenuous 12-10 lead, the Red Raiders took control with a 6-0 run capped by a kill from Erb to make the score 18-10.

The Red Raiders captured the game and match on an ace by Thorelius.

Fitzsimmons led Jacobs with 6 kills followed by Mahoney with 5 and Bridget Wallenberger collected 4.

"We really worked hard on serve receive in practice on Monday but we didn't click today," said Jacobs coach Lisa Dwyer. "We could never grab the momentum in this match. Our biggest problem all season was consistency."

Cary-Grove d. Harlem: The Cary-Grove girls volleyball team had 5 days to simmer and boil since losing to Prairie Ridge in Crystal Lake in the battle of Fox Valley Conference division winners last Thursday.

The top-seeded Trojans channeled their anger and disappointment in the right way and with vengeance crushed No. 16 seed Harlem 25-7, 25-7 in the first semifinal. The match lasted a snappy 32 minutes.

Cary-Grove coach Patty Langanis likes the way her team responded after the loss to PR.

"The girls really took the loss to Prairie Ridge hard," said the Cary-Grove coach. "We had some very good practices and we had the right mentality tonight. The girls were really ready to play and were very focused. They really had a fire in their belly and we really executed our offense well."

The Trojans distributed the wealth on offense as Ali Vasquez led the way with 10 kills. Allison Splitt and Sarah Graham added 7 kills apiece, Erin Olson served 4 aces and Emily Schuster collected 3 aces.

"We really worked on defense and serves in practice and did both well tonight," said Graham. "We were ready to play and did a good job of controlling our emotions."

The Trojans started fast in Game 1. Maddy Katchen's kill gave the Trojans an early 7-1 advantage. The Huskies never threatened as Cary-Grove rolled out to a 18-7 lead after a kill from Rachel Rosch.

Up 11, the Trojans grabbed a 1-0 lead in the match by scoring the final 7 points. Graham, Splitt and Vasquez colleted 2 kills each and Olson delivered an ace.

In Game 2, Harlem put up a fight early. After a kill by Abby Sundberg, the Huskies held a 5-4 lead.

The Trojans seized control of the game and match by scoring the next 11 points. Splitt collected 4 kills and a block, Graham had 2 kills and Delaney Bayer and Schuster served aces as Cary-Grove turned a 1-point deficit into a 15-5 lead.

Cary-Grove, which ended the game on a 21-2 run, scored the game and match winner on a kill by Katchen.

"We have a lot of seniors on this team and we want to go as far as we can in the tournament," said Olson. "We played with a lot of focus tonight."