Girls volleyball: Libertyville churns past Lakes, produces 21st straight win

Do we dare attach a label here, when talking about the Libertyville girls volleyball team?

They are very close to being a volleyball machine.

Come on now - there's that dynamite setter in Anna Lillydahl, that magical libero Morgan O'Brien and too many hitters and defenders to single out.

On Tuesday night, the Wildcats riding a 20-game winning streak, hosted a very good Lakes club in the sectional opener at Libertyville. And no, these Cats didn't blow the Eagles out of the gym. Both sets were hotly contested, but again the Wildcats prevailed 25-22, 25-21.

"Lakes was very tough,'' said Libertyville senior, Hannah Zerwas. "They really pushed us. But we were prepared for them. We watched them on film."

Lakes (30-8) jumped up on the Cats in the early going. That lead didn't last as there were five ties, the last one at 12-12.

"Their setter (Lillydahl) was great tonight,'' said Lakes coach Kate Cheek. "And so was their libero (O'Brien). We are sad about losing but we gave it everything we had."

The Wildcats (33-5) finally broke away a little. With O'Brien serving, both Haley Stevenson and Erin Dunleavy notched kills as Libertyville opened a 16-13 lead.

"We knew Lakes would give us a really good game,'' Dunleavy said. "We had watched them on YouTube. It was really close most of the way but we remained calm."

Libertyville was not able to really break this set open. On four consecutive serves, the Eagles had kills from Megan Behrendt, McKenna Lahr, Kaylee Lebron and Erica Grant.

"We knew Lakes was a strong team,'' said Libertyville coach Greg Loika. "They had a lot experience and some strong outside hitters."

The steady Dunleavy delivered a key kill to give her Cats a 22-19 lead, and Allison Watson's kill ended set one.

Set two began as a replica of set one. This time, however, the Eagles made a charge at the favored Wildcats. The dangerous Behrendt landed back-to-back kills to cut the Cats' lead to a single point at 12-11.

"I think they scored 4 points in a row,'' Loika said. "We needed a timeout to get the momentum back."

Lakes managed to knot the set up at 17-17 on a kill from Katherine Billetdeaux. Again, the Cats managed another short lead.

"We really get along well,'' Dunleavy said.

Several volleys went a few rounds and were accented by brilliant plays by both sides. While Lakes had some great saves in one volley, a kill by Lillydahl ended that with a point for Libertyville.

Behrendt had the final kill for her career to keep the second set alive, but just barely at 24-21. Again, another Watson kill gave the Cats their 21st win in a row.

Behrendt closed her high school days with 13 kills and 9 digs. Lahr led the defensive end for the Eagles as she notched 18 digs. Setter Maddie Demo had 24 assists, while Billetdeaux had 5 kills and libero Paige Bartlett had 23 digs.

For the winners, it was 24 digs for O'Brien. Dunleavy (8 kills), Watson (7 kills) and Zerwas (4 kills) led the offense on this night.

Loika also saluted the work of former middle blocker, Jacqui Widmark.

"We moved her to back row and she did a great job,'' he said.

The rivalry match is on tap for Thursday, as Stevenson and Libertyville will meet for the sectional crown at 6 p.m.