Girls volleyball: West Aurora handles South Elgin

There may not always be a lot of flash with the West Aurora girls volleyball team, but there sure is plenty of substance.

The Blackhawks pride themselves on balance and efficiency and that was on display Wednesday night as they systematically went about their business in defeating host South Elgin 25-16, 25-20 to remain undefeated in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division at 4-0.

The Blackhawks (16-5 overall) had a slight advantage in overall kills, 24-18, but didn't miss many opportunities as they converted on 86 percent (24 of 28) of their attempts. West Aurora did a good job of spreading out its attack to 7 different players with kills. Junior outside hitter Gillian Jones led the way with 6 kills. She also had a team-high 5 digs. Cristina Stinson and Kayla Battle each added 4 kills for the Blackhawks.

"Everybody has something to offer on our team," West Aurora coach Kevin Mortlock said. "So we like to mix it up and move the ball around. It makes it difficult to defend when you are coming at a team from a lot of different angles."

After cruising through Game 1 and the early part of Game 2 the Blackhawks had to fend off a late rally by South Elgin. After trailing by as many as 6 points in the second game the Storm pulled to within 20-19 on a kill by Haley Fisher. However, West Aurora regrouped to score 5 of the last 6 points to secure the win. Jones had a big kill down the stretch.

"We got a little passive," Mortlock said. "Once we got aggressive and started swinging away again we were able to get it turned back around."

Jordyn Poppen served for 3 of the points including an ace during the final run. Poppen had 4 kills and 2 aces in the match.

"We practice all the time how to finish games strong," Poppen said. "We just got back to moving the ball and pulled it back together at the end. We definitely like to run a lot of different plays to get our points."

In Game 1 West Aurora took command with 5-0 run to go up 9-4. South Elgin (6-7, 1-2) was never closer than 3 the rest of the way.

Rachel Priore had a nice game for the Storm with 8 kills and 6 digs. Julia Saldivar had 9 assists and 4 digs.

"I liked the way we battled back in that second game," South Elgin coach Joni Plach said. "And I though our serve receive was much better tonight. But they are a good hitting team and at any one point we have three sophomores and a freshman on the floor. So sometimes we are still having a tough time keeping up with the faster level of play against the good teams."