CL South turns back Huntley

When the Crystal Lake South girls volleyball team runs its middles effectively, the Gators can run about anything they want.

Short one starting middle blocker with starter Beth McGinn undergoing an MRI on her knee, Crystal Lake South kept right on rolling Tuesday, powered by quick-hitting, 6-foot-3 middle Erin Johnson.

The Huntley block was understandably drawn to the Illinois-bound Johnson, which opened opportunities for senior outside hitter Katie Trayser in a 25-21, 25-7 nonconference victory in Huntley. Johnson notched 7 kills and 4 blocks while Trayser paced the Gators with 8 kills.

"We're definitely a team that loves to run our middles, and every team we play knows that," Trayser said. "We still do really well with it even when teams know we're going to do it, so it was great to get a chance to hit a few balls tonight against a single block."

The Gators (6-1) had defeated Huntley (4-4) three days earlier at the Plainfield North tournament in two competitive games, and Tuesday's Game 1 followed suit. There were four lead changes and six ties early before the Gators nudged ahead at the midpoint.

Leading 16-14, CL South rattled off 3 consecutive points: setter Jordan Guida ran a fake to Johnson in the middle only to back set senior Lena Mack for a booming spike kill; senior outside Caitlin Schumacher tipped down a Huntley overpass at the net; and after a great rally, Huntley hit out of bounds to fall behind 19-14.

But the Red Raiders rallied to within 21-20 on the strength of 2 kills and a block from junior Toni Jaehnig and 3 CL South unforced errors.

After a timeout the Gators rebounded to win 4 of the next 5 points and the game. Trayser notched 2 kills in the final push while backup middle, junior Brittany Atkinson (4 kills), added a spike off the Huntley block for another point. Atkinson closed out Game 1 with an ace.

CL South chose to let Huntley do the heavy lifting in Game 2.

"We needed to let them play the ball," first year Gators coach Jorie Fontana said. "I think a lot of times teams score against us because we make errors instead of putting it on their court. In that second game we put it on their court to see what they could do and they just couldn't get in a rhythm. We capitalized on it, which is what a good team should do."

Huntley fell behind 7-2 due to a bad receive of serve on the opening point, 3 straight kill attempts hit wide, a spike into the tape and no return of an ace by Johnson. The Raiders never recovered from their funk at the outset of Game 2, and Trayser poured it on with 4 big spikes from courtesy of Guida sets.

"It was the first game this year we literally haven't had a chance in," Huntley coach Michelle Jakubowski said of Game 2. "Every other match we've been in every game and it could have gone either way. This was the first time we really didn't look like ourselves and really let the emotion of that take something away from us.

"That's not to take anything away from (CL South). They're a great team and they played well. We didn't play well, we had tons of errors. We hit balls out, we didn't serve tough like we've been doing, we couldn't pass serve-receive and we couldn't hit. You really can't have those combinations at this point."

Huntley junior setter Amanda Carroll finished with 8 assists and freshman libero Amy Dion had 18 digs, but no Red Raider recorded more than 2 kills.

Guida finished with 21 assists for the Gators and sophomore libero Kali Loescher notched 8 digs.