Larkin tops Streamwood in regional opener

It was a comeback of epic proportions for the Streamwood Sabres girls volleyball team Monday night, but they just couldn’t hold on against the Larkin Royals.

The Royals (12-24) defeated the Sabres 25-22, 28-26 in the play-in game of the Class 3A Elgin regional at Chesbrough Field House, setting the Royals up with a semifinal match against top seed DeKalb tonight, just after Elgin and South Elgin meet at 5:30 p.m.

In a back-and-forth Game 1 Monday, the Royals manufactured a 6-0 run late to take a 21-20 lead as the Sabres’ returns continued to go out of bounds. The Royals would hang tough to get the 25-22 victory as the hard-hitting Brianna Stewart notched the winning kill. Stuart was happy with her team’s communication throughout the night and knows it was a big part of the victory.

“I think we played one of our best games,” said Stewart. “(Larkin head coach Marcin Dybka) always tells us to talk, and if we talk it will go a lot better. So we just had to cheer and talk ... just communicating.”

The Royals would get two more big runs in game 2, a 4-0 run including kills from Olivia Kolfe and Piper Johnson, and another 3-0 run later to put them ahead 24-15. With Kaitlyn Hedger serving, the Sabres put up an incredible 10-0 run to tie the game at 24 as Brittany Kemp and Hanna McGlone came up with huge blocks on shots by Stewart to keep their team in the game, forcing Dybka to use both of his timeouts to get his Royals to regroup.

With the game tied at 26, the Sabres had two consecutive returns go out of bounds, giving the Royals the 28-26 victory.

“I’ve never seen a middle serve 8 points in a row like that,” said Streamwood head coach Lisa Vazzana of Hedger. “She brought us back in the game and she gave us a lot of confidence.”

“(Dybka) was saying that all we have to do is side out,” said Stewart of the timeouts. “And to hit the line across court, because if I hit the middle it would go that way and basically just to play defense.”

Stewart led the Royals with 19 kills on the night, while McGlone led the Sabres with 9 kills. Kemp notched 13 assists for the Sabres, and Liz Simonelli had a team-high 19 digs.

The Royals will get set to play DeKalb Tuesday, a team that they haven’t faced at all this season. Stewart knows her team will have to step up to the challenge.

“We’ll be looking for bigger hits from them,” said Stewart. “So we just have to play better defense.”