Silver turns into platinum for Huntley volleyball team

It was a silver anniversary, but the Huntley girls volleyball team wanted platinum.

Playing in the platinum championship bracket of the 25th annual Huntley Invite on Saturday, the Red Raiders swept their semifinal match against St. Ignatius and went on to defeat potent Marian Central 25-7, 25-22 to win the title.

It was the first championship for Huntley (20-6) at its own invite since Oct. 8, 2000, and the second tournament title for the Red Raiders in as many weeks. Last weekend they won five straight matches to win the St. Viator Tournament.

"It feels great to go back to back," said Huntley senior setter Amanda Carroll, who dished out 75 assists in 5 matches over two days. "And we wanted to win here. We haven't won this in like 10 years, so that was awesome. We've been playing so good."

Rarely has Huntley played as impressively as it did in Game 1 of the title match against the Hurricanes. The Red Raiders set the tone right away when Katherine Lowery's kill of Carroll's back set gave them a 1-0 lead. During the next point Marian fired back with a booming spike from outside hitter Mary Kate Manning, but Huntley sophomore Amy Dion made an acrobatic dig and Carroll set the ball to open floor for a 2-0 lead.

The lead only ballooned from there as Huntley played well and the Hurricanes (20-6) misfired on serves, attacks and passes throughout Game 1. Huntley led 15-7 when Dion stepped to the service line and the Red Raiders scored 10 straight points to close it out.

"They got on a few nice runs and we just couldn't get anything going in that first game," first-year Marian Central coach Laura Watling said. "They kept putting the pressure on us and didn't make a lot of errors, and we kind of crumbled. I was glad we came back and least made the second one a game."

In fact, Marian led the second game 18-14, but Huntley caught up with kills from 6-foot-2 middle hitter Jaina Jackson, right side Jillian Stock and a get-me-over bump by Dion that caught the end line.

Sophomore Sam Boesch, who saw her first action this weekend since dislocating her non-hitting shoulder seven weeks ago, gave Huntley a 23-22 lead on a tip. She followed with a block kill that brought the Red Raiders to championship point, and the girls from Huntley celebrated with a group hug once the Hurricanes sent a spike wide to end the match.

"We got down big in the second game, but it was impressive to see them come back and play with them point for point, then push away from 22-22," said fourth-year Red Raiders coach Michelle Jakubowski, who previously won a Huntley Invite title as coach of Lake Zurich.

Sophomore Ashley Smith led Huntley in the tournament with 26 kills and 14 aces, Dion made 45 digs and Carroll totaled 75 assists.

St. Edward finished eighth in the tournament with a 2-3 record. After going 2-1 in pool play with wins over the St. Charles East JV and Timothy Christian, the Green Wave (8-21) fell to Oregon in 3 games in the gold division semifinals.

Kristi Knott's spike kill clinched Game 2 and pushed Oregon to a third game. Three Oregon errors and Stephanie Igielski's kill to the end line pulled St. Edward to within 22-20, but the Hawks attacked with kills on the outside to pull away for a 27-25, 21-25, 25-22 victory. Joliet Township defeated St. Edward in the seventh-place match 25-19, 25-20.

"At times we played really well when we have everything together, but we don't adjust well when one or two things don't happen to go right," St. Edward coach Jaime Dovichi said. "We don't pick up more in one area than the other. It's starting to come. I think we'll be ready by tournament time."

Katie Ayello finished the tournament with 49 digs for St. Edward, Igielski had 31 kills and 7 blocks and Margie Haggenjos had 31 digs, 18 kills and 3 blocks.

Jacobs (11-20) finished 3-2 at the tournament to take ninth. The Golden Eagles beat Johnsburg 23-25, 25-23, 25-18 to win the silver bracket.

"Our outside hitters, Taylor (Lesner) and Alyssa (Ehrhardt) helped us out a lot the whole tournament," Jacobs coach Lisa Dwyer said. "And we had a little more offense because we worked our middles, Brittany White and Nicki Madoch, which also helped a lot throughout."

Jacobs setter Quinn Luehring finished the tournament with 125 assists, Mattie Stearns made 94 digs, Lesner contributed a team-high 45 kills along with 42 digs, 9 aces and 7 blocks and Ehrhardt notched 41 kills, 22 digs and 8 aces.