DeKalb eliminates Huntley
DeKalb's bus went the wrong way causing the Barbs to be late for Saturday afternoon's Class 4A Huntley girls volleyball regional championship match against the top-seeded and host Red Raiders.
That was the only thing that went wrong for the Barbs.
Led by 16 kills from junior Emily Bemis second-seeded DeKalb upset Huntley 25-22, 25-21 to advance to the Jacobs sectional Tuesday night in Algonquin.
“This win was all because of the girls,” said DeKalb coach Stephanie Gooden. “They made all the adjustments and gave me 110 percent effort. Our serve receive was excellent and we played with great confidence. We are very happy with the regional championship because we beat a great Huntley team at their place. We knew it would be a dogfight and it was. I am very proud of our girls.”
The Barbs (31-5) will play defending Class 4A state champion Cary-Grove Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Both games were closely contested with the Barbs winning at the end.
In Game 1, Kadie Lowery's kill gave the Red Raiders a 22-21 lead, but the Barbs tallied the final 4 points to take a 1-0 lead in the match. DeKalb scored its final point on a kill by Bemis.
In Game 2, Huntley looked in good shape to tie the match, taking a 19-14 lead on a kill by Ashley Smith.
DeKalb battled back to score 6 straight points and took a 20-19 lead when Courtney Thomas served an ace.
Huntley (32-5) tied the game at 21 on a kill by Samantha Boesch. Those would be the last points the Red Raiders would score.
Similar to the first game, DeKalb scored the final 4 points with the match-winner coming on a kill by Bemis.
Thomas backed Bemis with 12 kills.
Huntley was paced by Smith with 13 kills. Boesch added 11 kills and Lowery and Taylor Neperman collected 8 kills apiece.
Maryland-bound junior setter Amy Dion collected 16 assists and had 5 kills for the Raiders.
“We picked a bad time to have a bad game against a very good DeKalb team,” said Huntley coach Michelle Jakubowski. “We had a lot of service errors and we didn't read their defense very well. It wasn't our day and one person really beat us. Number 15 (Bemis) played an incredible game. We couldn't stop her no matter who we put on her.”