Stevenson comes back to beat Lake Zurich
Of the game-high 14 kills rolled up by Stevenson junior Rachel Baader on Wednesday night, one of them stuck out more than the others. And it wasn’t even a powerful spike that hit the floor with a thunder.
The crowd did ooh and ahh, though, as if it were.
Baader deserved the kudos.
She hustled her way far out of bounds to help setter Hannah Kay track down an errant ball that looked like it had no chance to be returned over the net. After Kay kept hope alive by getting a hand on the ball on Stevenson’s second touch, Baader twisted her body and, bad angle and all, somehow found a way to pass the ball back over to the Lake Zurich side.
The Bears, so convinced that the ball was unplayable, couldn’t move fast enough when they realized it had been returned. Seemingly cemented in their positions, they watched in horror as Baader’s spectacular pass not only cleared the net but landed smack dab in the middle of their defense.
It was the seventh kill for Baader in a decisive third game that visiting Stevenson won handily en route to an 18-25, 25-21, 25-10 victory over Lake Zurich.
“We’re a really scrappy team and we hustle for everything,” said Baader, who has been starting and hustling since her freshman year. “All year, we’ve been working on following each other and covering and doing the little things to win. Just making that little extra effort was a huge game-changer for us.”
Extra effort was the theme of the night for the Patriots (22-6, 4-1 NSC Lake), who stay in the race for the Lake Division title despite having their backs against the wall right out of the gate.
Lake Zurich came out with all kinds of energy and dominated the net in Game 1. The Bears got 4 kills out of Pitt-bound Amanda Orchard and 3 kills out of Layne Self in outscoring Stevenson by 7 points.
But the Bears seemed to get tired as the match went on and couldn’t keep up with Stevenson.
“We used so much energy early on that we just kind of broke down a little bit at the end,” said Orchard, who finished with a team-high 11 kills. “We still kept fighting, though. We just didn’t get the ending that we wanted.”
Stevenson senior Michele Schroeder served Stevenson’s final 2 points and was in on clutch block kills on 2 points prior to that. Liza Pflugradt also had some big kills in the third game and finished with 7 kills on the match.
Meanwhile, Kay, and fellow setter Jamie Baranowski finished with 13 and 9 assists respectively.
“That third game, we caught fire,” said Stevenson coach Tim Crow, whose team is in a battle with Lake Forest for first place in the Lake Division. “We talked in the huddle about the way we play is a direct reflection of our energy and how nuts we go on every play.
“We’ve had a few games like this where we’ve had to come back (from a first-game loss). We know we have the ability to come back if our energy is there.”
Baader is the ringleader in that department as well. With plenty of cheers, primal screams and high-fives, she kept her teammates upbeat and fired up with each and every play.
“Rachel was awesome today, obviously with 14 kills,” Crow said. “Even if you give her only a small window, she’ll get it there. She’s got great vision and hits it where no one is.
“She’s a gamer. She’s very competitive, but more importantly, she’s probably the best teammate on the planet.”
For Lake Zurich, which drops to 15-8 overall and 3-2 in the Lake Division, setter Kristen Walding finished with 25 assists while Self tallied 5 kills and 7 blocks.
“We started to serve receive poorly as the match went on and that’s been one of our Achilles heels all year,” Lake Zurich coach Matt Aiello said. “When we can’t get the ball to our setter on the net, it’s hard to run our offense. “We’ve got the hitters to play with anyone. When we pass well, we’re one of the better teams around.”