Girls volleyball: Kaneland moves on to sectional final

FREEPORT - The old saw about beating a team three times still holds true.

Kaneland struggled early against LaSalle-Peru, but regrouped in time to down the Cavaliers for the third time this season, 25-21, 25-23, in one semifinal of the Class 3A Freeport girls volleyball sectional Tuesday night.

Kaneland will play for the sectional title Thursday night against the Sterling, which beat Rockford Boylan in 3 sets in Tuesday's second semifinal.

The Knights trailed 17-10 in the first set before closing the game on a 15-4 run. By contrast, Kaneland led most of the way in game 2 but couldn't put away the pesky Cavaliers. The teams were tied at 23 before a kill by Jessica Weber gave the Knights the serve. Weber handled that duty herself and Katie Jablonski pounded one down for match point.

Weber finished with 9 kills for the Knights (33-4). Jablonski added 6 and Chloe Filipski 5 for Kaneland. Setter Hannah Nauert even chipped in a couple late in the first set.

The first set was marked by wild momentum swings. The Knights started fast, building a 6-4 lead, but L-P scored 9 of the next 10 points to go up 17-10. A kill by Jablonski got Kaneland refocused and the Knights quickly blew past the Cavaliers. A 5-0 run with Jessica Nguyen at the service stripe put the Knights ahead for good. L-P briefly interrupted the run, but a hitting error gave Kaneland the serve back and Nauert finished it off from the line.

"It's always hard to beat a team three times," Kaneland coach Cyndi Violett said. "I think they thought they could just come out and beat them easily again, so it was just going out and playing hard and realizing that they've got to work just a little bit harder for it. I told them in a timeout, 'This is it, girls. If you lose, you're done. You've got to make that decision right now.' "

The Knights took those words to heart for the rest of the first set and it carried over to the second. L-P jumped to a quick 2-0 lead, but a Weber kill and a pair of service aces by Nauert put the Knights ahead. The Cavaliers never led again, but they wouldn't go away, either.

With Kaneland leading 19-13, LaSalle began to slowly chip away, eventually tying it at 23 on a bullet by Kamryn Olson. Violett called timeout again to settle down her squad, and they responded by winning the final 2 points.