Girls volleyball: Orucevic, Maine South have plenty to smile about after wild three-set comeback win at Rolling Meadows

Maine South girls volleyball coach Jon Weiland says Hawks senior standout Safia Orucevic needs to smile more.

Funny thing about that is that Orucevic hopes to provide patients with great smiles as a future dentist.

That's why she plans to study biochemistry at Washington University in St. Louis where she will also play volleyball before attending dental school.

And she showed once again on Tuesday night why she earned the chance to continue playing the sport in St. Louis by drilling a match-high 18 kills along with stellar back row defense to help lead the Hawks to a dramatic 31-33, 25-23, 25-22 nonconference win at Rolling Meadows.

"She keeps the game face locked in," Weiland said after his team improved to 5-3 while getting contributions from 13 different players in the elongated match.

"She is probably the most dedicated worker I've ever had. I tell her that all the time she needs to smile more. But she is just such a focused and dedicated athlete and she keeps her teammates in shape. She is our captain and four-year varsity player."

With set one tied at 31, senior Bella Zielinski smashed a kill off a block and sophomore Sophie Wery followed with another kill off an overpass to give the Mustangs (5-2) the win.

"After that, we said it comes down to the team that wants it more and we needed to close that set out," said Orucevic, who had a season-high 18 kills against St. Ignatius in the Hawks' second match of the season. "We struggled to do that in the first set, the longest I've played in high school."

But the Hawks were up to the task in the next two sets, winning the second on a kill by junior Alex Galimski, the Hawks' second leading attacker. South trailed 17-16 after a serving streak of 4 straight points by RM 's Lainey Griffiths.

Maine South built a 16-10 lead in the final set, thanks to a 3-0 run that included two kills by Orucevic and a hitting error.

Meadows got back within 18-17 on a kill by Wery.

Freshman Farah Ajanovic (three kills, one block) slammed two kills in the match's last three points, including the match winner on a set from Vasara Rauda.

"I was very proud of their fight on Monday (two-set loss to Hersey) and this match," said Meadows coach Jack Nickle, who got good swings from his outsides Zielinski and Libby Hamann and middles Giselle Vasquez and Wery.

"They were two really good tests for us. We don't go for moral victories but now we can say that we know we can keep playing really good volleyball and keep getting better from it. I'm super proud of their fight and it was a fun match."

And no one is having more fun than Orucevic, who also added six digs and two aces to her big night.

Other key players were senior Martyna Gancarz (six aces, eight digs, one kill), freshman Nicole Todorov (six kills, one block), senior Liv Crawford (two kills, two blocks), senior Rauda (22 assists, five digs, one ace) and junior Clare McCann (seven assists, six digs, three aces, one kill).

"We definitely needed the team win," Orucevic said. "It was definitely frantic in the first set when we obviously ran out of subs and had to put girls in positions they weren't used to. But we have to be ready for any situation like that. But it was a good win the way we closed it out and I think we'll be ready for conference which starts soon."