Girls volleyball: Meredith, Prospect power past Meadows
A couple of weeks after losing at home in three sets to Rolling Meadows, Prospect's girls volleyball team was able to flip-flop the results on Thursday in the final Mid-Suburban League East match of the season.
You might say senior Meghan Meredith helped the Knights block out that first match in Mt. Prospect.
Led by Meredith's 6 blocks, the Knights came away with a 19-25, 25-21, 25-17 triumph at Rolling Meadows.
"Six blocks in one match is fantastic" said Prospect coach Laura Gerber. "She set the school record with 10 in one match last year. Her timing is just really good and she aggressively penetrates the net. Tonight was definitely her night."
"It's very exciting," said Meredith who also put down a match-high 8 kills. "We definitely worked together a lot more than the first time we played them and we had a lot more communication. We put everything into this. It was our last conference game."
The win placed Prospect (8-20) in a tied for third with Meadows (14-20) as each team went 5-5 in league.
"We wanted to win in two, we just couldn't get it done," Gerber said. "But we're happy to win in three. The girls were able to come back after losing the first game. They've been working toward getting better every match. It's been a tough season so we're happy to see improvement."
A block by Elise Kowalski gave Meadows a 23-18 lead in Set 1 and moments later Natalie Klancik set Natalie Anderson for the set-winning kill.
But Prospect surged back in Set 2, taking a 9-5 lead on 5 straight service points from Meredith.
Meadows came back to tie it at 13-13 but Prospect answered with a 5-0 run off the serve of Val Thomas for an 18-13 cushion.
A tip kill by Kowalski and hitting error by Prospect got Meadows to within 23-21 but a block by Meredith and service point by Emma Cogan gave Prospect Set 2.
"Emma (5 kills, 2 blocks, 12 digs) played really well," Gerber said. "We're looking for someone to take control in the front row. and Emma did, so that was nice."
Knights sophomore Grace Cacini was another big attacker, collecting 7 kills with a block while Sloane Petlak chipped in 4 kills.
Cacini's block in Set 2 ignited a 6-0 run which gave Prospect an 8-2 advantage. The lead grew to 14-4 when Mia Farraday (10 digs) served 4 points, including an ace for the 14th point.
Meredith had back-to-back kills in the run, with the assists going to sophomore setter Casey Acosta, a recent call-up who collected 16 assists and 10 digs.
"Casey is doing a fantastic job," Gerber said. "We just threw her in this position 10 days ago and she is running a 5-1. She is only a sophomore. She has a lot of learning to go, but she is doing a good job."
Prospect kept the pressure on, and never let Meadows closer than 23-17.
A kill by Cogan and service point from Meredith wrapped up the match.
Senior Colleen Palczynski also played a key role for Prospect with her 3 aces.
"We served their libero (Thomas who had 19 digs in the match) too much in the third set, and she is good," said Mustangs coach Joe DiSilvio. "So they were able to run their offense. And we made a lot of mistakes, a lot of errors and we couldn't pass.
"All of a sudden we were hitting balls out of bounds and making poor decisions."
Natalie Anderson (7 kills), Natalie Klancnik (6 kills), Kowalski (5 kills), Caroline Slowik (4 kills), Leticia Avellaneda (5 kills) and Anjelina Alberga (3 kills, 3 blocks) led the Mustangs' attack set by Klancnik (66-of-68, 20 assists) and Mallory King (32-of-32, 8 assists).
Macie Robinson paced the back row with 23 digs.
"Everyone played well in first set," DiSilvio said. "Everyone was contributing but then we just started struggling a bit in the second and third sets.
"Obviously, it was tough not having Eleanor (Errico, Mustangs' top attacker who was not available) but in the first set Angelina did a nice job filling in that slot. We just couldn't hang on after that first set. It's like we lost a little bit of fight."