Girls volleyball: Pufundt’s 22 kills power Rolling Meadows past St. Viator
Rolling Meadows standout Lucy Pufundt missed the first five matches of her senior volleyball season due to an ankle injury suffered in preseason practice.
The outside hitter was back on the floor Thursday night for only her second match of the season and hardly missed a beat.
The dynamic slugger put down a career-high 22 kills to help lead Meadows to a 21-25, 25-21, 25-15 triumph against host St. Viator which had defeated Pufundt's teams five straight times during her four-year varsity career.
"It's amazing (to finally get the win)," said Pufundt, who has more than 800 career kills with a previous match-best of 20. "Our girls have been playing together forever and we're just really happy to be starting the season off on a good note."
The Mustangs are off to a 7-0 start under second-year coach Jack Nickle, who saw Pufundt put down 9 kills in her season debut on Tuesday against Hoffman Estates.
"She had a great match (Thursday)," Nickle said. "I know she is excited to be back with the girls and it was a great team win, too. We have a group of seniors who are looking to compete and there is not one match they go into thinking they can't win.
"I know we would not have gotten it without our passing game. Gaby Zielinski and Jelena Jevtic played phenomenally in the back court. They both made a lot of great plays for us and had a lot of great swings."
After Pufundt's kill got Meadows to within 22-20 in the first set, junior Avery Albritton put down one of her 6 kills to make it 23-20. The Lions then took advantage of two errors to win 25-21.
Meadows surged ahead 18-11 in Set 2, thanks to three straight service points from Carmen Powers and a kill by Pufundt. A nifty backhanded kill by junior Erin Lynch got Viator to within 23-20 before Meadows put it away 25-21 when Powers backhanded a set to Pufundt for the set winner.
The third set was tied at 6 before Zielinski's ace made it 8-6. Kills by Dalia Grandberry and Pufundt helped the visitors pull away to an 11-7 advantage. The lead grew to 20-11 on an ace from Sara Buchholz and eventually ended at 25-15 on an ace from Powers.
"I thought my setters (Powers and Lainey Griffiths) did a great job running the offense," NIckle added. "And a big shout out to Gaby Zielinski (8 kills), who probably had her strongest match of the season as well. We couldn't have done this without her passing and swings, too."
Murphy had some big swings for the Lions, collecting 14 kills, four shy of her career mark of 18.
"I have close friendships with a lot of their (Meadows) players," said Murphy, who hopes to play collegiate volleyball "I knew this was going to be a competitive match. They're a great team, We're a great team. It was just luck of the draw who came to play. They took it at the end but we fought our hearts out, played hard and together the whole match. It's still early in the season. I know by the end we'll be where we need to be."
Setter Isabella Botero had 23 assists for Viator, which also got 2 kills from Mary Francl and 1 kill along with 3 blocks from Sydney Mittel.
"That No. 7 (Pufundt, who has D-II and III collegiate offers) is really a good player," said Lions coach Charlie Curtin. "We needed to stop her and we weren't able to. They came to play. It's always a good match between Meadows and us. I think Jack (Nickle) does a really good job getting them ready and I like playing them. I thought we started out very strong, doing a lot of the right things. We were being aggressive and on our toes ready to attack the ball. I thought we got a little timid in the second and third sets and they went on a couple of runs."