Girls volleyball: West Chicago finds Gromos to overcome Lake Park
West Chicago middle hitter Angie Gromos stands tall at 6-foot-4, but she appears to get even bigger when she squares up against other talented middles.
Thursday at Lake Park, the Wildcats' senior found herself in a duel with Lancers sophomore Klaudia Rygula, as each player came up big, especially in the third and decisive set of their nonconference match. In the end the Northern Illinois University-bound Gromos stood tallest, guiding visiting West Chicago to a 27-25, 21-25, 25-21 win in Roselle.
After the Lancers trailed just 14-13 in the third set following a kill by Olivia Szylar, Gromos powered her team to victory with several big plays, including a trio of late kills. West Chicago built a 22-16 lead and eventually held on to improve to 11-11 on the year.
"I get really competitive, so if I see another middle that's really good, I'm like, 'OK I need to step it up,' " Gromos said. "So I was telling my setter, set me, set me, set me. I was really glad that she was able to set me and I love her."
Wildcats setter Emily Murphy was sharp in the match, finishing with 32 assists and 15 digs and, while helping get her big middle to 11 kills, she also made sure the outsides were involved, making it difficult for the Lancers to zone in on Gromos with their blocks.
"I hate (facing) teams when there's a really good middle and a really good outside because I don't know where to block," said Gromos, who had 4 blocks to go along with her match-high kill total. "So I'm proud of us for being that team."
Lake Park (7-5) had led the opener 19-16 at one point before West Chicago rallied for the 27-25 win with Gromos recording a kill and a block for the game's final two points. But the Lancers, who picked up 7 kills from Rygula in the middle, extended the match after an Izzy Kennedy kill through the Wildcats block went down and gave the home team the middle set 25-21.
Like Rygula, Kennedy finished with 7 kills. The outside hitter is hoping the Lancers can carry the good from Thursday's match as the team looks to regain some of the spark it had while starting the season 5-0.
"I think we need to take away some of the momentum we had and focus on the positives from today," Kennedy said. "We're getting back in our groove I feel like."
For first-year Wildcats coach Pam Pater the match marked a homecoming; she both played at Lake Park and served as an assistant coach to Tom Bergen.
"I think they knew I was a little fired up for this game," she said. "It means something being here. I think they played for each other and their coach and that's what they needed."
Pater added that her team's passing and limited mistakes made a difference in the tight match.
"It's great to have a 6-4 middle, but we can't do anything if we don't have passes. If we can't set her then we're having a double block on our outsides or our right side. We have depth. If we can use everybody we can be unstoppable," she said.