Girls volleyball: Cary-Grove comes back to stop Dundee-Crown

Although serving is not as exciting as kills, digs and blocks, it is an integral part of volleyball.

The Cary-Grove girls volleyball team became painfully aware of that fact in the first set of its Fox Valley Conference match against Dundee-Crown Thursday night in Carpentersville.

The Trojans gave up 5 points on service errors in the opening set, a 25-20 loss to the Chargers.

Cary-Grove turned around its play on the service line, collecting 13 aces in the next two contests to win the match, 20-25, 25-14, 25-16.

"We live and die by the aggressiveness of our serves so we try to go for it at the service line," said Cary-Grove coach Patty Langanis. "When you're playing tight, that's the first thing to go. We start playing loose in the second and third set. Everything was coming together and our serves were just like the icing on the cake."

Cary-Grove (2-2, 2-2) took an early lead in the first set but due to service and hitting errors could not pull away from D-C. The Trojans' biggest lead was 7-4. The Chargers tied the set 4 times before taking the lead 19-18 on a Tarrah Kamp (8 kills) strike.

The Chargers' tenacious defense led by Zoe Sitarz (18 digs, 2 aces) and Irene Martin (4 kills, 11 digs) ended several Cary-Grove attacks.

"We have some decent hitters and when we were able to get them the ball, Dundee was digging everything up." Langanis said.

Back-to-back aces by Jenna Thelen (4 kills, 3 aces) put D-C at game point, 24-20. A Trojans hitting error sealed the victory.

Confidence at the serving line sparked Cary-Grove's attack in the last two sets.

The Trojans' front line of Jenna Splitt (11 kills), Evynn Layshock (7 kills, 4 aces) and Amber Olson (6 kills, 1 ace, 3 blocks) found openings in D-C's defense.

"Jenna started finding new holes," said Langanis. "Amber and Evynn, on the on the outside found different spots and started tearing apart the defense a little bit more."

Cary-Grove took charge of the last two sets early. After the Chargers pulled within 3 points, 3-6 in the second set, the Trojans went on an 11-3 run to put the game away.

Cary-Grove never trailed in the third set, scoring the first two points of the contest. D-C pulled within 2, 4-2 but never got any closer as the Trojans went on a 12-6, run capped by 2 of Emily Schuster' 4 aces.