Women's volleyball: Harper handles Rock Valley

A pair of traditional North Central Community College Conference women's volleyball powers took to the court at Robert Morris University in Arlington Heights on Thursday.

This time around, though, there wasn't much doubt about who had the edge in the rivalry.

Host Harper improved to 11-2 overall and 3-0 in the league after earning a brisk 3-0 victory.

Harper, the defending NJCAA champion, had to dig itself out of early deficits in each set after Rock Valley College (8-6, 1-1) got off to quick starts.

But RVC could not sustain its high level of play. Fourth-year Golden Eagles coach Alyssa King attributed her team's inability to extend the early success to its youth, as the Golden Eagles only have two sophomores on the roster.

Harper, meanwhile, was able to adapt and thrive.

"Harper does a nice job of making adjusments," King said.

Harper coach Bob Vilsoet, whose team is ranked No. 1 in the latest NJCAA rankings, said he was pleased with the outcome.

"Rock Valley is a good team," he said. "They will be a better team next year."

The MVP of last year's national tournament, Palatine product Sarah Udoni, said part of the reason for the Hawks' early struggles is simply that Harper is a confident team.

"Bob has to tell us to re-focus, during the game," Udoni said.

With Harper trailing in the first set, that's exactly what Vilsoet did, while taking his first timeout of the match.

After the Golden Eagles scored the next 2 points, Udoni and her teammates went on quite a run, coming up with 12 kills on 21 attempts.

The most efficient player for Harper was Mackenzie Bush. The 5-foot-10 freshman middle hitter accumulated 7 kills in her 14 chances.

"If we saw something open," said Bush, "we used it."