Girls volleyball: Glenbard East plays spoiler at West Chicago
Glenbard East spoiled West Chicago coach Kris Hasty's final home girls volleyball match in front of a raucous crowd that featured large student contingents from both schools, riding Allison Hamaker's 12 kills and Meghan Wozniak's 8 kills and 11 assists to a 25-11, 16-25, 25-17 victory.
Hasty is retiring after 23 years as West Chicago's coach, and a large crowd turned out on Senior Night to see her off. What they saw was a seesaw affair in which each team took turns dominating a set before heading into Game 3.
"I don't understand it." Hasty said. "I thought we played really well in Set 2, then we come out and we're not passing and we're like, 'What just happened?' I think Marci (Glenbard East coach Maier's) kids were ready to play. We had flashes. It's crazy."
Wozniak and the Rams (19-16) stormed to leads of 7-2, 14-4 and 19-6 in Game 1 with Hamaker providing 6 of her 12 kills in the opening set. But the visitors crumbled after cutting an 11-4 deficit in the second set to 11-9 and forcing a West Chicago (20-15) timeout.
"I think in the second game we kind of felt a lot of pressure with the big crowd," Wozniak said. "It reminded us of how regionals and sectionals are. But in the third game, we did a really good job coming together as a unit and playing volleyball and doing what we know how to do best.
"We played with passion and really pushed forward in the third game," she added. "We had a great flow and did a good job of coming back from the second game."
"I think we started the game fired up with it being their senior night and Kris' last match on her home floor," Maier said. "I knew there was going to be a fired-up crowd for them and I told the girls before the game that it's going to be like a playoff atmosphere.
"We came out with intensity in the first set and took care of business, but in the second set we came out a little flat they started to execute better," she added. "They started to rip balls. They earned that second set. I was just extremely happy to see our girls rebound."
Sophomore Sarah Elliott came up big for the Rams with 6 kills, including 5 in the decisive third set, which saw Glenbard East build leads of 10-4 and 18-9 before West Chicago made a late push to get within 20-15 and force a timeout.
Junior Laura Katarzynski led the Wildcats with 7 kills and 2 aces, senior middle hitter Jennifer Orr added 5 kills, 6-foot-5 junior middle hitter Angelina Gromos added 4 kills and an ace, and senior setter Jessica Meissner dished out 11 assists.
"We have to get our heads on for next week see what happens," Hasty said.