Girls volleyball: Bartlett holds off Streamwood
A volleyball team needs resiliency if it hopes to be successful and on Tuesday night the Bartlett girls squad showed they have plenty of it.
After dominating host Streamwood in Game 1 the Hawks let a chance to wrap up the match slip away in Game 2. Then they fell behind in Game 3 before rallying late to pull out a 25-14, 25-27, 25-21 win in Upstate Eight Conference crossover action.
Meghan Colley led the way for Bartlett with 8 kills. While Emily Baggot had some big plays down the stretch and finished with 6 kills.
"We are a very young team so to get a win like this where we had to keep fighting back is huge for our confidence," said Bartlett assistant coach Aimee Riddle, filling in after the game for head coach Katie Spychala, who had another school function to attend. "We were very resilient. We kept fighting back and played hard until the very end."
After letting Game 2 get away the Hawks fell behind 8-2 early in Game 3 and were still down 17-13 a little over midway through. However, Baggot gave the Hawks a big lift down the stretch with 4 clutch kills from the middle. A kill by Baggot pulled Bartlett even at 19-19.
"We just got our energy level up," Baggot said. "We really shouldn't have got to that point. We weren't playing at our level. So we really had to step it up. It was fun to have that much excitement at the end."
An ace from Shayna Chack put the Hawks in the lead for good 20-19. Bartlett went to score 5 of the next 7 points to seal the win.
"We came out strong in that first game, but really let down in the second," Riddle said. "But we bounced back and started talking more and making smart choices late in the third game. We just wanted it more."
Dakota Johnson had 22 assists and 4 aces for Bartlett. She helped the Hawks build a 21- 8 lead in Game 1 with 6 straight service points, including 3 aces.
After closing out the win in Game 1 the momentum shifted dramatically toward the Sabres' direction at the start of Game 2. Streamwood jumped out to a 5-1 lead and held on to it until Bartlett pulled even at 19-19. The Hawks continued to pull ahead 24-21 but they couldn't close the deal on 3 straight match points.
Instead Streamwood rallied with 3 straight kills, including 2 off blocks by Ava Sumoski, to pull ahead 25-24. Three plays later the Sabres closed out Game 2 with an ace from Leslie Garcia.
However, the Sabres after leading most of the way in Game 3 ran out of steam at the end.
Ashley Rothenberg had a game-high 12 kills for the Sabres. Sumoski finished with 10 kills and 5 blocks. Leandra Gottschalk added 17 assists.
"It was great for our girls to be in a game like this," Streamwood coach Sheryl Hettinger said. "I haven't seen the gym this crazy in the 8 years I have been here. We would have liked a better outcome, but we are a very young team and this will be a great learning experience for us. We can take a lot more success than failure out of this game."