Glenbard East gets comfortable, beats Larkin on senior night

Veteran varsity players Allison Hamaker and Sarah Elliott have been to their share of Glenbard East senior night matches, but Tuesday night's felt a little different.

This time around the talented outside hitters were actually part of the girls volleyball festivities before taking on visiting Larkin. But once the action began, the pair and their fellow seniors continued to do what they've been doing plenty of this year, sweeping the Royals 25-4, 25-8 to stay perfect at 7-0 in the Upstate Eight Conference while improving to 22-5 overall.

"It was a lot of fun, but it was weird," said Hamaker, who had a match-high 11 kills to go with 3 blocks and 2 aces against Larkin. "I walked in with Sarah and I was like, it's our faces on the wall."

The four-year varsity starter, who will play at Ball State next year, started quickly with 5 kills and a block as the Rams charged out to a 12-2 lead. Elliott, meanwhile, led a charge in the second set after the Royals (1-29, 0-6) had closed to within 11-8 in the nightcap. Elliott, who will play collegiately at Gustavus Adolphus College, had 6 kills and 7 digs in the match.

"It's kind of surreal. I sometimes don't feel like a senior this year, and I walked in and was like, Oh my gosh, that's actually us (on the wall with photos and banners)," said the 6-footer who has started for three years. "It's amazing. We've had a really great season so far and I love that we got all the seniors out, even Cailey (Dufort), who has been injured, was able to get out there and serve."

Rams coach Marci Maier knows this is a special team she has in 2018 and she's thankful to have had a strong group of veterans that also includes senior setter Emily Sarles, who had 10 assists and also served out the match with 13 consecutive points as the Rams took the second set going away.

"This is one of the better teams that we've had since I've been here. This is a special group. They're a great group of girls. Just very fun to be around and hard workers … it's been a good season and we're going to hope that we can elongate it as much as humanly possible," Maier said.

For the Royals it was a tough night. Their passing was off on the same night the Rams were at the top of their game. The young squad has just three seniors and has been battling injuries, but strong serving by captain Kitzia Tinajero did lead an 8-3 run in the second set to get the visitors to within 11-8. Mallory Boulton and Ashley Miller each had winners for Larkin during the stretch.

"We're usually a pretty strong passing and defensive team, and I felt like we didn't really do that at the beginning of the match," Royals coach Henry Graack said. "Obviously, they have some pretty good hitters too, and obviously that takes care of some of that issue. I didn't think they served that tough to get us that out of our system. There were just too many easy balls going over because we were scrambling on our side."