advertisement

Willowbrook breezes to playoff win

A late-season downturn spoiled a possible .500-season for the Willowbrook girls volleyball team.

But in their Class 4A playoff opener on Monday, the Warriors rediscovered some of that early fall magic.

Behind a strong service game, 11th-seeded Willowbrook defeated Noble/ITW Speer 25-5, 25-10 in a York regional quarterfinal in Elmhurst.

"That was a good warm-up," Willowbrook coach Sue Bower said. "Just getting them in their rotations and also our serving was consistent. They were hitting the zones we wanted them to hit."

Next up is a regional semifinal against sixth-seed Jones.

"We are very comparable teams," Bower said. "Looking at their record, they played Glenbard North and beat them in two and we did that. They beat Morton in three and we also did that. So very comparable; I just want us to play our game."

The Warriors jumped out to a 7-0 lead over Noble in Game 1 behind 4 aces from freshman libero Payton Ceh. Olivia Pennebaker had 6 kills in the opener and Marissa Marcello contributed 8 service points.

Willowbrook also led 13-2 in Game 2; Jamie Chiappetta totaled 3 kills and 5 aces in the finale and Milena Sogura added 4 kills.

"We had energy for the most part and I thought we had some good plays," Ceh said. "Our serving was aggressive, we did not have a lot of mistakes."

The Warriors improved to 15-21. The squad sat at 13-13 before losing seven of their final eight matches in the regular season.

"The last couple of weeks have been a little rough," Ceh said. "It's all about our energy level, if it is high, we do really well."

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.