Girls volleyball: Libertyville's finishing flair sinks Warren

His team was once 4-12. No worries for Libertyville coach Greg Loika.

His team was so young. The Wildcats would eventually mature and make some noise.

Take Thursday night.

The 13th-seeded Wildcats stormed out to a 16-7 lead in the first set against No. 6 Warren in the Class 4A Cary-Grove regional title match. That was the set they didn't win.

This was the third straight year that the Wildcats and Blue Devils had met for a regional championship. There were no big leads in the second and third sets. It was epic volleyball at its best.

Libertyville will head to the Wauconda sectional after stopping a good Warren squad 22-25, 25-23, 25-23.

"This was a wonderful match," said coach Julie Filippo, whose Blue Devils finished 25-12.

How does a team that falls behind by 9 points in a set come back and win?

"Our kids are the comeback kids," Filippo said.

The rest of the match was point by point. There were very few surges. On back-to-back kills from junior Ella White, the Blue Devils held a 13-10 lead in set two. With Jenna Silverman serving for the Wildcats, the score was knotted at 16-16. A Kellie Hopper kill gave the Wildcats a 23-22 lead.

Hopper, a freshman, paced the Wildcats with 11 kills.

"This match was insane," Libertyville libero Morgan DeGregor said. "Yes, we lost a lot of seniors last year, but that didn't stop us."

DeGregor helped Libertyville's cause with 26 digs. Loika was proud of his Wildcats after they blew the big lead in the opening set.

"It would have been so easy to fold up," said Loika, whose team will play top-seeded Crystal Lake Central (30-3) at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Wauconda. "Warren had a great season. I just wanted our team to play loose."

Some of the volleys in this match were clear beauties. There were five ties in the early part of the decisive set. With senior setter Kailey Christianson at the serving line, a few Warren errors and an Anna Valente kill gave the Cats a 20-19 edge.

"We played our hearts out," Filippo said. "It was point by point. We had such a great year."

Warren's stunning comeback in set one came with Amanda Howe at the line. She delivered an ace and got some help from outside hitter Dana Lundtveit.

Warren still trailed 17-12, but a block from middle hitter Ora Cohen knotted the score at 22-22. Another White kill helped pave the way to this stunning comeback.

"Anything can happen in volleyball," DeGregor noted. "We had to stay confident. We stayed fired up after winning that second set."

"We knew nothing was going to stop us," Hopper added.

White had the kill that knotted up the third set up at 15-15. However, the Warren offense was stifled a bit with kills from Hopper and Madison O'Brien (5 kills). With Hopper at the serving line, the Wildcats made their move near the end.

Valente (6 kills) and key block from Maggie Evers increased the Libertyville lead to 23-20.

Another Libertyville freshman, setter Peyton O'Brien, notched 13 assists. Christianson had 10 assists.

Warren also can be considered a young team but did have some goodbyes to make. Setter Alison Maan de Kok, Hannah Barbosa, Katie Corr and Jessica Weinberg all played their last match at Warren.