Jacobs pulls off upset of Huntley

Alyssa Ehrhardt called it a dream come true.

Jacobs girls volleyball coach Lisa Dwyer struggled to find the words.

The Golden Eagles upset Huntley on Tuesday, 22-25, 25-22, 25-11, for the first time in “a long time” in Fox Valley Conference Valley Division play in Algonquin.

“This is the best feeling in the world,” said Ehrhardt, who had a match-high 22 kills. “I would say it’s like a dream come true. We’ve always wanted to beat Huntley.”

Ehrhardt’s offense was a key to the victory, but the Golden Eagles defense was the biggest reason. Jacobs (22-10, 6-3) had at least 66 digs in the match. Senior libero Rebecca Jobst and junior outside hitter Maris Smith each had 19 digs. Kassie Kasper added 9. Ehrhardt and Taylor Lauder each had 8. Nikki Madoch had 3.

The Red Raiders (23-5, 8-2) clearly got frustrated in the third game as Jacobs seemingly got to every ball.

“Huge defense, especially in game two and three,” Dwyer said. “They really, really wanted to go after Huntley. The girls were definitely hungry.”

Huntley took a 24-17 lead in the opening game on an ace from Amy Dion, who finished with 4 aces. The Golden Eagles saved 5 game points before Taylor Nepermann’s kill gave the Red Raiders the opening-game win.

Game 2 went back-and-forth as neither team led by more than 4 points. The game was tied at 20-20 before kills from Ehrhardt, Rachel Arceneaux and Ehrhardt again gave Jacobs a 23-20 lead. Huntley got within 2, 23-22, after consecutive kills from Sam Boesch, who led the Red Raiders with 13 kills. But Ehrhardt answered with consecutive kills of her own, her ninth and 10th of the game, as Jacobs took the second game.

“It was a whole team game. Our defense was on,” Ehrhardt said. “Becca and Kassie did amazing. It was a team effort. That’s the way you want to win.

The final game was all Jacobs. Madoch had a kill, followed by an Ehrhardt kill and Madoch block. An ace from Smith and another kill from Ehrhardt made it 5-0 and the Golden Eagles never looked back.

“They played a great match and we didn’t,” said Huntley coach Michelle Jakubowski, whose team will need to win at Cary-Grove Thursday to regain a tie for the FVC Valley lead. “We made a lot of errors.”

Lauder had 26 assists for the Golden Eagles. Smith added 6 kills and Madoch 5.

Huntley’s Eli Manning also had 26 assists. Ashley Smith had 6 kills. Boesch and Dion each had 15 digs.