Girls volleyball: Negron powers South Elgin past Streamwood
As a 4-year varsity veteran, South Elgin's Angie Negron is looked upon to provide leadership for her more inexperienced counterparts this volleyball season.
She also packs plenty of punch at the net.
The 5-foot-11 senior outside hitter powered a match-high 13 kills and 4 digs while helping lift the Storm (1-1, 1-0) to a 25-21, 25-12 Upstate Eight Conference victory over Streamwood (3-4, 0-1) Tuesday night in South Elgin.
"She's definitely playing her role as a 4-year senior starter," said Storm coach Joni Plach. "Even when the set is not the best set, she's still able to do something with it.
"She does realize that it's her last year here. She's always positive. She liked to hit the ball hard. It's fun for her and the team."
The opening game was tight throughout, as both teams capitalized off a variety of service, passing and hitting errors.
Trailing 17-13 following the second of 4 service errors, the Sabres went on a 5-1 run to tie it at 18-18.
South Elgin finally took the lead for good on a kill from Bella Tusa (3 kills) and Negron's powerful putaway off a cross-court set from senior setter Allison Cunniffe (13 assists) extended the lead to 20-18.
After a middle kill from the Sabres' Vivian Sumoski (3 kills) cut the deficit to 24-21, the Storm took the opener on another kill from Negron.
"They're a good team," Streamwood coach Shelly Mueller said of South Elgin. "They have a lot of good arms in the front row and they've got a lot of options.
"I was excited to see us come out and fight."
Kaylee Angle paced the Sabres with 4 kills while junior libero Hannah Jenig collected 7 digs, including some of the spectacular variety.
"Hannah started playing libero for us on Saturday," said Mueller. "The first three games, I had a different girl at the position.
"I loved her (Jenig) her energy. She brings that 'the ball is not going to hit the floor because I'm back here' confidence that we need to see."
Streamwood kept things close early in the second game.
A middle kill from Angie and Jenig's ace pulled the Sabres within 14-9 before South Elgin tallied 5 consecutive points to help seal the decision.
Negron provided 3 more kills late in the match to solidify South Elgin's first win of the season.
"We realized that the majority of their (Sabres) points were our errors so by the second game we were focusing on limiting those unforced errors," said Negron. "By the second game, we started picking it up and playing at our own game level."
Mariely Sotelo and Natalie Stoch each had 3 kills for the Sabres while Mary Rackow added 10 assists.
"I haven't seen that program play so well in years," Plach said of Streamwood. "I thought it was good competition tonight - definitely a lot of defense on their side."