Girls volleyball: Jacobs tops Dundee-Crown for 1st FVC win

Jacobs had a couple reasons for letting loose following a 25-23, 16-25, 25-22 win over Dundee-Crown on Tuesday night.

The victory was their first in the Fox Valley Conference. It came in front of a big crowd on Jacobs' Teacher Appreciation night.

And then there was the opponent.

"Crown has always been our biggest rival and I think that really pushed us," Jacobs senior outside Autumn Miller said. "And we really wanted our first conference win."

Miller contributed 8 kills to the victory, the final one coming on match point.

With Dundee-Crown (4-9, 1-7) trying to rally, Andie Voss passed to Hannah Rivera who set Miller for the match-winner.

"Autumn in the end really wanted to put the ball away," Jacobs coach Lisa Dwyer said.

"We have been working on our serve-receive and I thought we did much better at that. Yes, we get in rolls of unforced errors in a row and we just have to stay calm and regroup and I think that's what we did at the end. We regrouped ourselves and put the ball down."

Jacobs (3-10, 1-7) was the team who came from behind in the first set.

Irene Martin, who led Dundee-Crown with 10 kills, tipped a winner to put the Chargers ahead 18-14. They led 22-19 after Claire Muhvic set Tarrah Kamp for a kill.

But Miller's kill capped a 6-1 run for Jacobs to end the set.

"Definitely disappointed in our performance tonight," Dundee-Crown coach Christine Hopkins-Muehl said. "Did not play the way we have been playing or what we feel is our standard of play. Couldn't quite get past ourselves is probably the biggest thing."

Jacobs was its own worst enemy in the second set, committing 9 hitting errors. That included a stretch of four straight that put Dundee-Crown up 9-7.

Jenna Thelen and Martin served aces as the Chargers pulled away, outscoring Jacobs 14-5 after the set was tied 11-11.

Freshman Maggie Wallenberger, who paced Jacobs with 10 kills, delivered two key sequences in the third set. The first came with back-to-back kills for a 10-7 lead, and she followed with two in a row again later that made it 18-14.

"Maggie was huge tonight," Dwyer said. "We needed her offense so bad and I was so proud of her. She's a freshman, she's going to go through that (inconsistency). She put it together tonight."

Dundee-Crown got as close as 20-19 on a kill by Thelen. A quick kill by Rivera got Jacbos going again, and Miller ended the match moments later.

"They fought. They played hard," Dwyer said. "In game 3 I was proud of the girls for regrouping, knowing what they were doing in the game, their plays, and I think that helped keep them calm so they knew what they needed to do to get the job done."

Jordyn Kelly had 20 digs for Jacobs, Rivera set 24 assists, Kelly Ross chipped in 4 kills and Maddie Breeze served 2 aces while Zoe Sitarz (13 digs), Thelen (8 kills, 5 aces), Martin (6 digs), Jenna Brown (14 assists, 6 digs), Kamp (7 kills) and Muhvic (13 assists) led the Chargers.