Girls volleyball: Larkin downs pesky Streamwood
The Streamwood girls volleyball team dropped its match to Larkin in two sets Tuesday night in Elgin, 25-18, 25-20.
But the Sabres didn't make it easy for their Upstate Eight Conference River Division rival. They rallied late in both contests before Larkin put them away.
"Streamwood is a scrappy team. They are good at keeping the ball alive so they are going to capitalize on errors," said Larkin coach Henry Graack. "We made 10 hitting errors in the first game. When you give away 10 points that doesn't help."
In the first game, the Royals were at set point for three serves before notching the winning score and in the second contest, it took seven attempts to reach 25.
Larkin (5-5, 1-1) led from start to finish in the first set. A Mallory Boulton spike (5 kills) put the Royals up 20-9. Streamwood, aided by Larkin attack errors, rallied to narrow the Royals' lead to 23-16. A Sabre net violation put the game at set point, 24-16.
Streamwood (2-9, 0-3) scored two more points before Royal Natalie Kofie put in motion the winning play. Instead of placing the ball for one of her hitters to spike, the setter used a tip kill to end the game.
"Our hitters made a few mistakes before that so I thought I would try it," Kofie said of her winning kill.
In addition to 4 kills, the senior had 14 assists, 3 aces and 9 digs.
Streamwood raced out to 4-0 lead in the second set.
A Nicole Alm kill that narrowed the Sabres' lead to 5-3, changed the momentum. Mackenzie Malone started a 7-serve run for Larkin with one of her 3 aces. By the time it ended, the Royals led 10-6. Malone also made 9 digs.
Alm led the match with 6 kills.
"I been working hard in practice on my distance and really focusing on keeping it (the ball) in the court," Alm said.
Streamwood pulled within 2 on one of Ashley Rothenberg's 4 kills, 13-11 but that was as close as Streamwood would get.
Another Malone ace put the Royals at set point, 24-14, but service errors which plagued the team throughout the set, attack errors and kills by Sabres Kaelyn Gottschalk (2 kills) and Jhantelle Damasco (3 kills) narrowed Larkin's lead to 24-20. The Royals scored the game point on a Streamwood service error.
Consistency at the service line in what final won the match for the Royals, according to Graack.
"A little bit more consistent serving especially in the second half of the second game made the difference" Graack said "Serving is something that needs to be our strength all the time."
"We're improving in all areas of the game," said Streamwood coach Daniel Aloisio. "It's just we make a couple of simple mistakes here. You make too many of those and you let the other team get away."
April McGhee made 4 kills and 7 digs for Larkin, while classmate Audrey Shores delivered 5 kills.
Julia Hedger notched 12 digs for Streamwood and teammate Jeriann Gumila was credited with 8 assists.