Girls volleyball: Kaneland downs Morris, clinches I8C title

Kaneland girls volleyball coach Cyndi Violett and her team Thursday celebrated an Interstate 8 Conference championship after sweeping Morris 25-21, 25-19 in a battle between the conference's top two squads.

The title was on the line because the Knights had their 15-game winning streak snapped by Rochelle on Tuesday, their first conference loss since 2019.

"They were upset and crying after losing like that, and I told them that life's about failing," Violett said. "You are going to fail in life all the time. It's about how you are resilient and bounce back.

"We needed to bounce back, and that's exactly what they did tonight."

Morris (22-6, 10-2) continues to be without the services of 6-foot senior middle hitter Hanna Lauterbach, who is sidelined with an injury but may be able to return in the postseason. Her absence continues to be felt as the state series nears.

"We've been struggling trying to find a different rhythm without her, so we're still trying to figure things out," Morris coach Scott Howell said. "We were hitting it a little bit too far and too hard sometimes and just getting stuck in defense second-guessing ourselves, and that's really what got us today."

Back-to-back Rosie Karl kills were followed by an ace from the junior as well in the first set as the Knights began pulling away late to take a 21-13 lead. They'd need it, as Morris closed the set on an 8-4 run to take some momentum into the following set.

"Our attitude and mentality in the Rochelle game started going down, and we started getting in holes," Karl said. "Today whenever we got into a little hole, we were able to side out right away, and we knew it was really important, especially against a big team that's going to get their kills and stuff."

Kaneland (21-5, 11-1) found itself deadlocked with Morris on seven occasions in the second set, the last at 14-14. When the Knights traveled down Rt. 47 earlier this season, it took them three sets to beat Morris after losing the second set. They wouldn't let history repeat itself this time.

"I think it was good for us to beat them at their place the first time around," Violett said. "Every set was close and back and forth, so it was good to have that win under our belt going into this one."

Karl's kill gave the Knights a 15-14 lead in the second set, and they wouldn't relinquish it. Later in the set, a perfectly placed ball from junior Delaney Calabrese and back-to-back blocks from senior Breanna Ebert and junior Sophie Knazur set up Ebert to hammer down a set-deciding kill that was blocked out of bounds.

"We came to practice last night and worked extremely hard for this," Karl said. "We changed our attitude and were able to beat a very good team."

Morris is a program that Howell hopes can compete against Kaneland for conference titles on an annual basis.

"It's the first time, I think, in school history where we've had this opportunity with how this conference has been. I've been here eight years, and we've never been in this situation," he said. "We've come up short, but to have been fighting to get up to this part, and now that we're here and our lower levels are competitive, this is where we want to be, and that's a bigger take-away than the game."

It takes great players to make such progress, and junior Ava Smith certainly shined in the losing effort.

"Not only was she big for us on the court, but in the huddle," Howell said. "She was trying to keep everyone calm, cool and collected and reminding everybody that this should be fun right now, because we are playing for a conference championship."