Libertyville girls fall to New Trier
After missing the first week of the season because of the effects of last week's storm, the New Trier girls volleyball team finally played its first match of the season.
It was worth waiting for as the Trevians swept visiting Libertyville 25-20, 25-9 in a nonconference contest Thursday.
"It's amazing that we are able to play at all after last week," said Trevian coach Hannah Hsieh. "But because of the storm, we had to disrupt our practices. Some of the girl were without power at their homes, plus we had girls out with the flu."
The Trevians turned on their power game, as well as some potent defense.
Five-foot-10 junior Jessie Atlas led the way with 14 blocks, while 6-foot senior Nina Lyeria chipped in 9.
Atlas led the offense with 13 kills and Lyeria added 9.
This was Lyeria's first game back after she missed most of the second half of last season with an injury.
"The team did a great job feeding the ball to me so that Jessie and I could score the points," Lyeria said. I just feel that this was a team effort."
Hsieh tipped her hat to her players.
"Nina did a great job for us at the net today," Hsieh said. "Jessie is a returning letterman from last year and she controlled the net both on offense and defense for us."
For the Wildcats, Amber Bryant served up 7 points and had 1 kill, Erin DeMarco was 25-of-26 setting with 8 assists and 1 block.
Ali Haws had 2 kills, was 3-of-7 serving and added a dig. Emma Melendez had 3 digs.
After being down 24-16, Libertyville (0-2) scored consecutive points, but Lyeria notched the final point with a kill.
In Game 2, the Trevians raced out to a 12-2 lead and never looked back.
"I thought that the momentum of the first game would carry on to the second game," said Wildcats co-captain Haws. "A lot of the passing and blocking wasn't there like we want to be and (New Trier) was really good with their blocks. I felt it was real hard for us to get around their blocks."
"I am a little disappointed with this loss," said Wildcats coach Chris Trzyna. "I was happy with the way we tried to come back in the first game, but we just couldn't carry that fight into game 2 They are a big team and when you don't have the height that they do, that means you have to play a little smarter and we just didn't do that today."