Aggressive Jacobs aces Dundee-Crown
Jacobs entered Thursday night's Fox Valley Conference Valley Division matchup at Dundee-Crown at 5-7, a record that disappointed the Golden Eagles and surprised Chargers coach Christine Hopkins-Muehl.
"I've said all along Jacobs has all the tools," Hopkins-Muehl said. "I know their record isn't showing that right now. I was curious to watch them and see why some things aren't working."
Everything was working Thursday. The Golden Eagles proved Hopkins-Muehl's scouting report correct, flashing strong serving, solid defense and some strong play at the net for a 25-17, 25-22 victory.
"We started out kind of rough so it was really important for us to come in here and finish this game," Jacobs libero Monet Charron said.
It was Charron and Bridget Wallenberger's serving that helped Jacobs (6-7, 3-3) set the tone early in the match. The two combined for 6 aces in the opening set.
Dundee-Crown (14-4, 3-2) led early 3-1 when Wallenberger's six-point service run included three straight aces for a 7-4 lead. The Golden Eagles didn't trail again, extending their lead to 16-10 on Charron's ace.
"That makes a huge difference," Jacobs coach Lisa Dwyer said. "We said we have to do better at that service line. We've been working really hard to improve our game. We've been working on serving much tougher and serve-receive and what they've done was very key right there."
Kyla Fitzsimmons and Wallenberger combined for a block that took Jacobs to set point, and the Chargers followed with one of their six hitting errors.
Jacobs started strong in the second set, taking its biggest lead at 8-2 on Wallenberger's block.
This time it was Dundee-Crown who piled up the aces including two from Zoe Sitarz. The Chargers took their first lead at 12-11 on Gina Pagano's kill down the line, and the score stayed tight the rest of the way.
Tied at 18, 20 and finally 21, the Golden Eagles scored 3 straight points again with Charron serving her jump-floater to lead 24-21. Pagano's kill kept the Chargers alive, but Paige Queffelec bump set to Katie Mahoney went for a kill and ended the match.
"They were serving very aggressively, probably one of the more aggressive teams we've faced," Hopkins-Muehl said. "We adjusted the second game. Second game we started to creep back in but it was a little too late."
Wallenberger led Jacobs with 8 kills, 4 aces and 4 digs. Other key contributions came from Mahoney (6 kills), Charron (3 aces, 4 digs), Katelyn Rainsford (4 digs), Fitzsimmons (4 kills) and Queffelec with 9 assists.
"We came here with an attitude that we were going to get the job done," Charron said. "Going behind the service line it was just positive thoughts the whole time. Serves in, aggressive, let's do this."
Breanna Novak topped Dundee-Crown with 5 kills. Emma Brant had 4 kills and 5 blocks, Pagano totaled 3 kills and 6 digs, Frankie Cavallaro added 3 kills and 9 assists, Ali Buckley set 8 assists, and Sitarz had 7 digs.
The Chargers started the week at 14-2 before running into a buzzsaw against Cary-Grove Tuesday and now Jacobs.
"They are very disappointed," Hopkins-Muehl said. "I'm not as disappointed because we've been playing well and we know everyone in our conference is a formable opponent. We didn't execute some things in our game plan."