Special night for Jacobs’ Traub
In honor of Senior Night, Jacobs girls volleyball coach Lisa Dwyer, her players and coaching staff all wore pink T-shirts to school on Tuesday adorned with the image of smiling setter Mackenzie “Mackie” Traub.
“Don’t you think it’s unfair that you’re favoring that one senior over the others?” another teacher asked Dwyer.
“No,” Dwyer replied matter-of-factly. “We only have one.”
As the team’s only senior, the spotlight shined brightly on Traub before and during Jacobs’ final home match against rival Dundee-Crown. The game program? Fully dedicated to Traub, complete with a collage of her greatest moments and separate tribute letters from her parents and her coaches.
Her house? Covered in at least 50 rolls of Charmin the night before. “They got us very badly,” she said.
Even the hallways of the school were plastered with fliers bearing her picture, reminders to the Jacobs Gold Rush cheering section not to miss “Mackie Night.”
Traub provided the storybook finish. She stepped to the service line with Game 2 tied at 22-22. Not only did the 5-foot-3 senior serve out the final 3 points of the match, she delivered perfectly placed sets on the final 2 points, which hitter Katie Mahoney slammed to the floor with vicious spikes to punctuate Jacobs’ 25-17, 25-22 victory.
Jacobs (19-15, 4-8 FVC Valley) finished Game 1 with a 7-0 run and finished Game 2 on a 5-0 run.
“Finishing it 5-0 was a good way to end my last home game, that’s for sure,” said Traub who finished with 20 assists in a 5-1 offense. “Setting Katie, well, we’re very close. Me to her on the last two plays was kind of special.”
“They were perfect,” Mahoney said of Traub’s last 2 sets. “We all definitely wanted to get this last conference win for Mackie. She deserves it.”
Mahoney finished with a match-high 9 kills to go with 3 aces and 6 digs as the Golden Eagles completed a 2-match season sweep of rival Dundee-Crown (13-16, 2-10).
The Chargers, who sometimes played five sophomores on the floor simultaneously, pulled with 18-17 in Game 1 when junior Kiana Mays sent a soft shot to the floor.
Jacobs responded with 7 straight points, highlighted by 2 of junior Allie Campbell’s 3 aces and 2 kills by sophomore outside hitter Kyla Fitzsimmons, who finished with 5.
“Close games can go either way,” Traub said. “At the end of Game 1 you could tell they got frustrated with each other. We just took it from there.”
The Chargers mounted another strong challenge in Game 2, tying it 19-19 on an alert dump by sophomore setter Frankie Cavallaro, who registered 16 assists to go with 5 kills and 6 digs. D-C grabbed a 22-20 lead on a spike by sophomore Breanna Novak that split the Jacobs block.
After a timeout, the Golden Eagles fired back with the next 5 points, 3 of them on kills by Mahoney.
“We’re not collectively playing together right now,” D-C coach Christine Hopkins-Muehl said. “We have some individuals who have some moments, but we just can’t get that we-before-me concept going. I thought we were lacking a little bit of desire. That little glimmer in the eye to go after and chase down every little thing wasn’t there.”
Junior libero Kassie Kasper finished with 11 digs and sophomore middle hitter Bridget Wallenberger added 4 kills for Jacobs.
Mays and Novak and sophomore Ashley Raby each recorded 5 kills, and senior libero Kaylee Sommers added 9 digs for Dundee-Crown.