Wheaton Academy hands Glenbard South first conference defeat

Coach D.A. Nichols has a lot of confidence in his Wheaton Academy girls volleyball players, but he was a little more concerned about Thursday's match at Glenbard South than usual.

The flu bug that's been running through the team frequently has left the Warriors shorthanded, but they were at full strength, or close to it, when they handed the Raiders their first Metro Suburban West defeat of the season. The Warriors won 25-20, 25-22 in Glen Ellyn.

"We've had practices we've canceled because we only had five or six kids," Nichols said. "They really wanted this game, so even if you're sick, you just kind of pull a Michael Jordan there."

Wheaton Academy (24-6, 7-2) never trailed in Game 1, leading by as many as 7 points. The Raiders (20-6, 8-1) tried repeatedly to chip away at the lead but never could come equal with the Warriors, and senior Sydney Vischer put away two kills to end the game.

"Honestly, I don't remember much of the game," Vischer said. "It's all a blur right now. Basically all I know is there wasn't a play or a moment where we all stopped focusing or stopped playing together."

"We just didn't play our best today," Glenbard South coach Chad Grant added. "They outplayed us. They got us out of system a lot, and we had to set our outsides way too many times, and we became predictable. They also dug quite a few more balls than we did. Defense is something that we preach a lot, and when we don't show up and play with it, those are usually the matches that we don't win."

The Raiders looked like they would win Game 2, leading most of the way. But Wheaton Academy, which won eight of the final nine points, caught up at 21-21 on a Kaitlyn Franz tip kill, then took a 22-21 lead on a Samantha Krill kill.

"We came out strong, and then it seemed like we got stuck in two rotations there at the end that we couldn't get out of, especially the last (run)," Grant said of the second game. "We couldn't get the momentum back and close it out at the end there, which normally doesn't happen to us. Normally we put the match away. Tonight just wasn't our night."

A Vischer spike from the back row ended the match. She remembered more of Game 2.

"I remembered when he got down it was mainly just attitude," Vischer said. "... When we got it back together and we got that team mindset back, that's when we started playing back up. Before we started playing that second game, I told (my teammates) we can't play like we just won, we have to play like we just lost, so that we want it even more badly."

The Raiders remain in first place in the league.

"We still feel good about it, though," Grant said. "We're still in the driver's seat. We just have to make sure we play better than we did tonight these next three games and not take anything for granted so we can finish it out."

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