Girls volleyball: Wesoly, Crystal Lake South ace Hampshire
Sam Wesoly picked a good time for a career night from the service line.
The Crystal Lake South senior fired a career-high 7 aces against Hampshire on Wednesday, leading the Gators to a 25-15, 22-25, 25-18 victory in the Fox Valley Conference Tournament semifinals.
Leading 12-9 in the deciding third set, Wesoly rattled off seven straight points, five on aces. The Whip Purs tried a couple substitutions but could not halt the run until they trailed 19-9.
"I thought serving hard and putting pressure on them would make them nervous," Wesoly said. "I was just looking to zone serve and put everything into it, get them out of system and get us into system."
Wesoly, who also had 8 kills and 3 blocks, did not play in the regular season against Hampshire. Serve-receive hurt the Gators that night, but they are putting things together this week with three wins in three nights to reach the title match.
Crystal Lake South (7-5) will play No. 1 seed Crystal Lake Central (11-1) for the FVC tournament championship at 5 p.m. Thursday at Central Fieldhouse. Hampshire (8-6) faces Jacobs for third.
"We have kind of had a goofy season as far as our consistency," Gators coach Jorie Fontana said. "We would come out and play amazing and then we would lose some confidence and make a lot of errors. We have been on a roller coaster. For me this is a fun end to see them playing their best volleyball. They are tired but they are executing well and playing good, consistent volleyball."
The Gators got off to a strong start. Middle Mia Regillio had a kill, block and kill on three straight points to take an early 5-3 lead, and the spread kept increasing from there. Gabby Wire took a set from Emma Stowasser and hit a cross-court winner to make it 21-11. Wesoly served 2 aces and then ended the opening set with a kill from the back row.
Hampshire tied the match with its set two win, building a 22-16 lead behind big swings from Jacey Lambert, Gabi Peter and Hayley O'Reilly. The Gators scored six straight to make it 22-22 before the Whips forced the third set on a Gator hitting error, an ace from Juliana Barrientos, and the Gators pushing a shot wide.
Hampshire wasn't able to continue the momentum into the third set. The Gators grabbed the lead for good at 3-2, broke the set open on Wesoly's service run, and ended the match when the Whips served long.
"I just wanted to play super hard for this game," Wesoly said. "We were so close to the championship match, I just wanted to give it all we have got."
Wire (8 kills), Stowasser (25 assists, 4 aces), Regillio (5 blocks, 3 kills), Ashley Ciezadio (3 kills, 3 blocks, 2 aces) and Alyssa Zagroba (8 digs, 2 aces) also came through for the Gators, who are excited to get a second chance to play Crystal Lake Central.
"I'm hoping since we have been building into our best play we will be able to play them more confident," Fontana said.
"The girls did a great job tonight attacking where we talked about. I'm super excited about how they executed as these games are getting more intense."
Peter and Lambert tied for match-high with 9 kills for Hampshire.
"We didn't get our job done when we needed to, plain and simple," Hampshire coach Will Benenhaley said. "We didn't put the balls down, we resorted to tipping instead of hitting. Basically we beat ourselves."