Girls volleyball: Quite a show from Carmel, Lake Zurich
A simple request to the girls volleyball players from both Carmel Catholic and Lake Zurich.
Please save a match like Tuesday night's for a sectional or supersectional.
Neither coach Dave Pazely from Carmel nor Rachel Wiatrowski from Lake Zurich had seen anything like this before.
There was no hint after Carmel took the first set 25-18. Set two saw the Bears open a 24-20 lead. That's when Alyssa Donton went in to serve for the Corsairs. She delivered four straight points as her Corsairs rallied. The Bears eventually prevailed 29-27.
The third set went further. Carmel survived 25-18, 27-29, 34-32 in a nonconference thriller in Lake Zurich.
"It was insane," Pazely said after his Corsairs improved to 3-1. "I love the fight in my girls, but we had so many game points that we didn't put away."
In the opening set, Carmel's lead was comfortable at 20-13. But the hometown Bears (1-2) surged back with the hard hitting of Claudia Kieda (16 kills).
"She's been a big hitter for us," Wiatrowski said. "She's got a nice jump serve and she's fun to watch play."
Carmel's Erin Taylor (12 kills) closed the first set with a serving ace.
"We tried to control the momentum," Taylor said. "Both teams fought so hard. We aren't the biggest team around, but we try to use that our advantage."
The Bears tried to pull away in the second set behind the strong play of Katie Guy (10 kills).
"Katie just has joy in her face," Wiatrowski said. "She's one of our captains."
Donton's clutch serving helped move the second set past the standard 25-point finish.
"I took a deep breath," Donton said. "We definitely do this 100 times in practice."
On a sterling block from Lake Zurich's Mckenna Zobel, the Bears' lead was 13-10 in the decisive third set. But Eileen Tarcha's tough serving helped rally Carmel, which got a Donton kill to get the Corsairs within to 22-21.
Carmel got clutch help from Alyssa Dellert (7 kills) down the stretch, and then a Taylor kill notched the score at 30-30. Zobel had her team's final kill. Taylor's soft shot ended this epic.
Donton closed with 8 kills and delivered 15 assists. Taylor added 4 blocks.
Lake Zurich libero Elana Kraversky notched 17 digs.
"No, I've not seen a match like this," Wiatrowski said. "It was fun to coach. It was the most amazing match."