Girls volleyball: Prospect powers up, sinks St. Viator

The energy level was on a high note from start to finish in the cozy Cahill Gymnasium on Tuesday night when the St. Viator and Prospect girls volleyball teams met in Arlington Heights.

And it was the visiting Knights who finished out a dramatic third set on a high note to edge the Lions 19-25, 27-25, 25-21 for the nonconference win.

The visitors broke a 21-21 tie in Set 3 by scoring four of the final 5 points, the final two coming on senior Kaeli Myers' kill and service point.

"We played with a lot of intensity," Myers said. "And it showed."

The Knights (2-1) showed they never give up, despite the deficit.

They trailed by as much as 13-5 in Set 1 before getting to within 21-18.

Viator (1-6) put the set away on a block by junior Catherine Hickey, who finished with 10 kills, one behind team leader Kendall Claffey.

Prospect trailed 17-14 in Set 2 but finally pulled it out on an ace from Kendra Gancarz (26-25) and a kill by Myers off Paige Gerber's set, which made it 27-25.

The cheering grew even louder in Set 3 as the two team were tied at 18 through 21 before Prospect edged away 23-21 on kills from Myers and junior Meghan Meredith.

A kill by Claffey got the Lions to within 23-22 before Myers put down a clutch kill followed by a Viator error, which provided the Knights their match-winning 25th point.

"It was really a great match," said Knights senior Maggie Porwitz, who led the team with 6 kills. "They (St. Viator) really had great energy and that made us want to match theirs."

Set 3 saw two key service runs which provided big momentum for each team.

Nursing a 5-4 lead, the Knights received four straight aces from junior Valerie Thomas to widen their lead to 9-4.

Quickly asserting herself as a team leader in aces, Thomas had 5 on Tuesday night.

"We were joking around with coach (Molly May) Klein because she has school records for serving," Porwitz said. "We said Val could be going after them. She's had so many aces, it's ridiculous."

Junior Rina Rodriguez's kill got the got the Lions back to within 10-7 and then it was 5-foot-11 junior's turn to serve. Rodriguez reeled off nine in a row to give the hosts a 16-10 advantage.

But the Knights refused to let up.

Senior Paige Gerber's long set along the net to Mary Mazurek resulted in a kill to get Prospect to within 17-16.

After Hickey's kill made it 18-16, Mandy Withey's tip kill and an ace by Paige Gerber tied the set at 18-18.

"Coach (Laura) Gerber changed up our back row defense to compensate for Catherine Hickey and how she well she was hitting around us," Porwitz said. "Our middle backs did a great job."

"Kendra (Gancarz, who had 6 digs) and Val (Thomas, who had 8 digs) stepped up and really got to everything they were hitting," said Myers, who also was key in that department with her 8 digs.

Porwitz collected a team-high 6 kills with 3 digs while Meredith, Myers, Withey and Mazurek all had 3 kills apiece.

"I thought we got it together on serve receive at the end and did a nice job communicating as a team," said Knights coach Laura Gerber.

The Lions received 25-of-27 serving and 7 aces from Rodriguez while sophomore Carrie Leazer was 12-of-12 with 2 aces. Leazer also led Viator with 24 digs.

Junior setter Michaela Mueller had an ace, a crafty dump kill, 24 assists and 15 digs for the Lions.

"We definitely had more energy than usual," Mueller said. "We needed that coming off a tournament (at Wheaton North). We really just have to focus on the little things and some of those didn't happen for us this match."

Senior Katie Kerrigan contributed 4 kills for the hosts while Rodriguez had 3 with 8 digs. Hickey also had 9 digs and sophomore Kaylee Liberty 8.

"We played much better than we have been," said Lions coach Charlie Curtin. "This was a tough match. I wish we were on the other end of it but we are moving in the right direction.

"We struggled a little with our serve receiving in the second and third sets but we were able to overcome it and make it a match."