Girls volleyball: Surging Prospect does it again

Ten days ago, Prospect was a .500 team in the Mid-Suburban East.

When the Knights' girls volleyball players left their Jean Walker Field House on Thursday night, they were 6-3 with back-to-back wins in three days over the top two teams in the division.

First, it was a convincing two-set win over Wheeling on Tuesday followed by Thursday's drama-filled 25-23, 23-25, 25-21 triumph over 13-time defending East champ Hersey.

"I think our confidence is through the roof at this point," said Knights senior setter Paige Gerber, who used all her offensive weapons while collecting 28 assists. "It was just a matter of having to move the ball around so their blockers didn't know where to go."

The Knights' blockers sure knew where to go, collecting nearly 20 blocks in the match which elevated Prospect's record to 17-6 and 6-3 while Hersey slipped to 18-5 and 7-2.

The Huskies are now tied for first with Wheeling (18-9, 7-2) with one match left.

Hersey is at Rolling Meadows (17-11, 5-4) on Thursday while Wheeling hosts Elk Grove (4-20, 0-9).

"Hersey and Wheeling are the two toughest teams in the league and we really played well in both matches this week," Gerber said. "It was fun."

Sophomore Mandy Withey and junior Meghan Meredith led the way with 6 blocks apiece for upstart Prospect while senior Maggie Porwit added 5.

"It was probably our best blocking match," Gerber added. "That helped a lot."

Also helping out were the 9 kills from Porwit followed by 8 from senior Mary Mazurek, 6 from senior Kaela Myers and 5 from Meredith.

Junior Val Thomas paced the back row with 28 digs, followed by Myers (23), Gerber (10) and senior Kendra Gancarz (10), who made a couple of eye-popping saves.

"It was great to see the girls play really, really well," said Knights coach Laura Gerber. "Hersey is a really strong team and our girls stepped up."

The Knights really stepped up in the tough situations. They fell behind 4-0 in Set 1, which was tied nine times before Prospect got the final 2 points on blocks from Withey.

The Knight trailed 6-0 and 18-10 in Set 2 when they came back to lose by only 2 points.

With confidence looming from the late rally in Set 2, Prospect took charge 3-0 in Set 3 with pair of blocks from Meredith and a kill from Myers.

Hersey got back to within 3-2 on an ace from Amy Morgan and the set was then tied nine times, the last at 17-17.

That's when Prospect asserted itself taking advantage of 4 errors by Hersey and a kill from Mazurek for a 22-17 cushion that forced Huskies coach Nancy Lill to call her second timeout.

The visitors stopped the Knights streak with Maggie Reisel's quick set to Sammi Steger, who put down her eighth kill of the match.

Laura Gerber followed with a timeout and the Knights responded with a tip kill by Mazurek for a 23-18 lead.

Prospect got to match point (24-19) on a kill by Myers (24-19).

The Huskies drew to within 24-21 with 2 kills by senior Zoe Strozewski off quick sets from Reisel before Myers put down the match winner.

"I knew going into the season Prospect would be the team to beat and they showed it tonight," said Hersey coach Nancy Lill. "They played their hearts out.

"The offense was great. They were diving for balls I didn't think they could get. It was a total team effort. Hats off to them."

Leading the Huskies' attack were Strozewski and freshman Kati Kaburov with 10 kills apiece while Reisel collected 33 assists and Liz Solans had 29 digs. Morgan added 6 kills and 16 digs. Teammate Mary Clare O'Shea produced a pair of kills.

"We were out of sync with our passing game," Lill added. "And we handed the match to them on a platter in the third set. It's unfortunate but wake-up calls are a good thing at times. They enable you to try to work harder and improve."