Wolves snare another regional

As soon as Prairie Ridge got its serve down, it took control.

The Wolves, who dropped the first game of their own Class 4A regional to top-seeded Woodstock 26-24, used a 7-point service run from junior Sondra Parys in Game 2 to spark a 24-26, 25-20, 25-18 victory. The win gives Prairie Ridge (20-16) its sixth straight regional title and eighth in the last 9 years. The Wolves face DeKalb, which won the Rockford Jefferson regional at 5 p.m. Thursday in the opening semifinal of the Crystal Lake South sectional.

"I found the holes on the court," said Parys, who had 12 kills, 2 blocks and 15 digs in the match. "I was hard, aggressive serving. I was trying to get the ball everywhere."

Parys' service run extended Prairie Ridge's lead from 7-5 to 14-6 in Game 2, but more importantly it allowed the Wolves to speed up the pace of the game -- a tempo they were much more comfortable with.

"They wanted to slow the game down, we wanted to speed the game up," said Wolves' middle blocker Ashley Doherty, who finished with 10 kills, 3 aces, 4 digs. "Our energy and our ball control helped a lot in games two and three."

As soon as Prairie Ridge changed the momentum, it controlled the match. After winning the opening game, Woodstock (26-10) and the Wolves remained locked early on in Game 2.

After Parys' service run, Prairie Ridge went up by as much as 20-10 before closing out Game 2. The Wolves were also good at taking Woodstock out of its game plan with its defense.

"Our serve receive was really good," PR coach Stefanie Otto said. "It helped get our offense going. We tried to play mini games within the game -- first to 5, first to 10."

The mini game of the decisive final game was the first to 15. Tied at 10, Prairie Ridge exploded on a service run from Doherty to go up 15-11. The Wolves then won the race to 20, going up 20-13. Woodstock did make a late run after Prairie Ridge went up 21-14, but the Wolves were too strong closing out the match on a pair of Woodstock hitting errors.

The Wolves got a huge contribution from sophomore Taylor Brauneis, who finished with 4 kills, 4 blocks, 13 digs and 29 assists.

"She played awesome," Otto said.

Prairie Ridge advanced to the regional final by defeating McHenry (5-26) 25-11, 25-11. Woodstock beat No. 4 seed Grant 25-14, 25-23 in the other regional semi-final.