Girls volleyball: Huntley outlasts Jacobs in 3 sets

Tied for second in the Fox Valley Conference going into Thursday night, Huntley and Jacobs expected nothing but each other's best shot.

"We knew going in it was going to be a battle," Huntley coach Karen Naymola said. "Jacobs is extremely scrappy on defense and I think they do a really good job of flustering our hitters a bit because they pick up everything. I thought our hitters did a really good job of not letting it rattle them. They kept swinging away, they kept their shots.

"I was really impressed with our offense and how aggressive we stayed."

The Red Raiders had just a little more left than the Golden Eagles in a close match that was tied 34 times over the final two sets. Huntley outlasted Jacobs for a 25-18, 21-25, 25-22 FVC victory to move into sole possession of second place with four matches left.

Huntley (13-8, 10-4 FVC) and Jacobs (12-7, 9-5) entered Thursday with identical FVC records. The win also gave the Raiders the regular-season sweep over Jacobs. Crystal Lake South leads the FVC at 13-1.

"This is going to be a momentum changer," said junior libero Luma Acevedo, who led the Raiders with 28 digs and four aces. "We hit a rough patch a few weeks back but right now we're in a really good spot. We're working well together, we're playing super smart and we're super disciplined. I think we can do huge things this season, and I think this game definitely helps that."

Thursday's match went almost point-for-point over the final two sets as neither Huntley or Jacobs could build a lead bigger than two points until closing runs by each team: Jacobs in the second and Huntley in the third.

Trailing 20-19 in the third, Huntley made the biggest run by either team in the last two sets, scoring five straight points to take a 24-20 lead. A kill from Avary DeBlieck started the match-sealing run, followed by an ace from Acevedo, kill from Ally Panzloff, another ace from Acevedo and a tip kill from Georgia Watson.

Watson ended the match with another kill three points later.

DeBlieck, a Miami commit, had seven of her team-high 12 kills in the last set as the Raiders looked to get her the ball.

"It was a little intense, but we know it's just really important to keep up the energy to make sure we can push forward when it gets close like that," DeBlieck said. "It can be tiring sometimes, but it's nice when you have your teammates' energy to feed off.

"We had a lot of support tonight, too."

Panzloff finished with eight kills and 16 digs for Huntley, and Maggie Duyos had 31 assists, two aces, four kills and 14 digs. Lauren Bauer added six kills and Lizzy Williams had five.

Jacobs was led by senior setter Rachel Kaczorowski, who was all over the court and recorded 15 assists, nine digs, four aces and a team-best seven kills. Jaclyn Poirier posted six kills, Meredith Giustino had 14 digs and two aces, and Ireland Van Stone had four kills.

Although his team came up short, Jacobs Mike Depa had nothing but positive things to say about his team's effort.

"We've been focusing all year on keeping positivity on the court and making sure we don't get down," Depa said. "We're super excited about how we played. The first time we played them, I think it was a lot more nerves. From that moment on, we made sure to focus on what we're doing well, instead of getting down on ourselves."

"We've fought really hard against really good teams and have big wins against good teams. We're just looking to keep getting better each game."