Girls volleyball: Kaneland rolls past Rock Falls

Katie Jablonski has a nontraditional collegiate wish.

"I want to play beach volleyball," Jablonski said.

But the Kaneland senior is not finished with her high school indoor career.

Avenging its last regular-season loss with unexpected ease Thursday evening at the Class 3A Burlington Central girls volleyball regional final, Kaneland rolled past Rock Falls 25-15 and 25-18 as Jablonski had a match-high 12 kills and 4 aces.

Rock Falls' opening point of the match was its only lead of the night as the Knights (33-4), the third seed, captured their 23rd consecutive victory to earn the right to face Carmel in the second semifinal of the Woodstock North sectional on Monday.

Second-seeded Rock Falls' season ended at 31-5.

Jablonski and Sydney Fedderly collaborated for the signature element of the Knights' first-set victory.

The two seniors combined for one-fifth of the Knights' points with 5 aces.

Fedderly had her 2 aces in back-to-back fashion.

Kaneland was never truly threatened again after Fedderly staked the Knights to the early 6-3 lead.

"(The coaches) gave us a zone to serve in," said Fedderly, who also had 3 kills. "We knew we could beat them to the spots."

But Jablonski was even more efficient from the service line.

Jablonski had a kill for a personal sideout with attendant service honors.

Rock Falls never served again in the first set after Jablonski scored 8 straight points from the baseline.

"It's something we work on to keep (Rock Falls) out of system," Jablonski said.

Jablonski was equally lethal from her outside hitter position, finishing off kills from both the left and right sides.

"I was just trying to hit to their front-row players," Jablonski said.

Rock Falls was baffled by their inability to halt the Knights' serving prowess.

"We usually work a lot on serve-receive in practice," Rock Falls offensive leader Vanessa Romo said. "We usually talk a lot on the back row. We didn't tonight."

Kaneland made sure Rock Falls' earlier triumph would not be replicated.

"We definitely didn't play to our full potential the first time," Jablonski said.

As if Jablonski were not causing enough issues for Rock Falls, Grace Franz complemented the Knights' senior leader who eclipsed 1,000 career kills with her eighth unreturned spike of the match.

"We just played our hearts out tonight," said Franz, who had 5 of her 6 kills in the second set. "That's what helped us win tonight."

Kaneland reserve Natalie Kraemer made the most of her 2 kills.

The senior extended the Knights' second-set lead to 22-17 with the first; Rock Falls' season ended on the second.

"I was very nervous," Kreaemer said. "I didn't want to (mess) up the final point. I had the confidence to hit the ball."