Terrell turns it up, and Wheeling fells Deerfield

After No. 14-seeded Wheeling dropped the opening set to No. 19 Deerfield, Wildcats girls volleyball coach Jason Kopkowski sent his team a message.

"I just told them they've got to play the game they've fallen in love with and the game they've played all season," he said.

By the time the Wheeling Class 4A regional play-in match was over, the Wildcats fell in love with their powerful outside hitter Timber Terrell.

The 5-foot-11 sophomore put down kills for 6 of the Wildcats' final 8 points in a 17-25, 25-16, 25-11 victory.

"Oh man, I love when she hits like that," said senior all-conference libero Alexa Laureano. "When Timber pounds the ball, I get so pumped up. She really gets us going and then we can't stop."

Next stop for the Wildcats (17-19) is today's 5:30 p.m. semifinal match against No. 3 seeded Carmel (30-5).

The second semifinal matches No. 6 Palatine against No. 11 St. Viator, which advanced due to Waukegan's forfeit (due to teacher's strike in Waukegan District 60) in Monday's second play-in.

Deerfield (11-19) used a strong serve from co-captain Lauren Tonner (3 aces) which included 4 straight points to grab a 17-9 lead in Set 1 and the Wildcats could never recover.

But Wheeling turned the tables in Set 2, coming out with a 5-0 lead thanks to four straight service points from junior Michaela Vasey (9 digs, 3 kills, 2 aces).

"After set 1, he (Kopkowski) told us not to lose our energy," Laureano said about the second set surge. "He said, 'You guys can do it.' "

They did it in all phases in Set 2, taking a 10-4 lead on back-to-back aces by Terrell (4 aces for the match).

Terrell added another ace when she returned to the line late in Set 2 to make it 23-15.

A kill by senior Domenica Montesinos (4 kills) made it 24-15 before the Wildcats wrapped it up a service error by Deerfield.

The teams started Set 3 in proximity before Wheeling slowly crept away.

Wildcats senior Setter Sabrina Semeria (18 assists) served 2 points to give the Wildcats an 11-5 lead and Deerfield never got closer than 5 points.

Senior middle hitter Lani Greenberg (4 kills) moved quickly to her left for a big block that made it 13-6.

Moments later, it became the Terrell show as the sophomore's put down nearly half of her match-high 13 kills.

"She's a very good player," said Deerfield coach Eugene Chung. "She found a rhythm and we had a real hard time stopping her."

Starting many of Terrell's kills was Laureano with a dig in the back row that she sent up to Semeria.

Laureano's 21 digs made her the first player in Kopkowski's seven years to collect more than 600 digs.

"Alexa also had some big serves," Kopkowski said. "It's funny how this game works. We couldn't get any aggressive serves to save our lives in set 1. Then we couldn't miss in the next two sets. And they weren't lollipops we were serving over. They were tough serves against a fundamentally sound Deerfield defense, They squared up to the ball every time you hit at them."

The versatile senior Deanna Kuzmanic added 5 kills and was 13-of-13 serving while also handing out 6 assists for Wheeling.

Junior Molly Nakahara led the Warriors with 9 kills, followed by Tonner (7), Allison Hector (4), Nicole Mincu (3) and Riley Tobin (3). Dana Kaufman (15 assists) and Sabrina Mosconi (10) set the attack while co-captain Kate Vivacue collected 10 digs.

"We really wanted to work on focusing our energy and managing our emotions on the floor," Chung said. "We tried to focus on one another and I'm proud of them. Outside of the court, I'm really impressed with how they came together as a team toward the end of the season."

Toward the end of Monday's match, the Wildcats made an adjustment that paid big dividends.

"We made a slight adjustment between Sabrina and Timber in the set and the rest is history," Kopkowski said. "We felt Timber was being rushed a little and we gave her a little more time."

And 'Timber Time' helped sway the Wildcats in today's semifinal.