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Girls volleyball: Sycamore snaps Kaneland's win streak at 15

The Sycamore girls volleyball team has been wanting a chance to prove it was better than its sub-. 500 record.

The Spartans had that opportunity Tuesday night in Maple Park when they snapped Kaneland's 15-match winning streak by beating the Knights ns 2 sets, 25-23, 25-23 in a Northern Illinois Big 12 East contest.

"We pretty much came in thinking we had nothing to lose," said Sycamore coach Jennifer Charles. "They are 6-0, winning the conference. We wanted to show people that our record (12-18-2, 2-4) is not a reflection of how we have been grinding and battling all season."

Kaneland coach Cynthia Violett was philosophical about her team's loss.

"I think the loss was probably good for them," said Violett. "It was good to have it now before you hit regionals. It gives them a reality check and they realize that they have to keep working hard to obtain the goals that they want."

The first set started out going the Knights' way as they jumped out to a 5-2 lead.

The Spartans battled back tying the game at 7-all on a Kaneland service error. The lead seesawed between the two teams. The Knights tied the game for the last time, 23-23, on a Jessica Weber (9 kills) spike.

Sycamore won the last 2 points on blocks which it used all set to thwart Kaneland attacks.

"We have been working on that for pretty much the last two-and-a-half weeks," Charles said. "One of the things that is going to put us above other teams is our blocking."

Kaneland (23-4, 6-1) scored the first point of the second set but trailed the rest of the way.

Three consecutive attack errors put the Knights behind 4-1.

Sycamore started to pull away, leading 20-14, when Kaneland battled back.

Kaneland went on a 6-0 run capped by back-to-back aces from Jessica Nguyen (13 digs) to pull within 20-18.

Sycamore hit set and match point on a Knight error. Two Katelyn Jablonski (5 kills) stalled the Spartans, who finally won it on a Maizy Larson spike.

"We had a lot of unforced errors, balls in the net and a lot of outs (in the second set)," Violett said. "I think they were trying to hit the ball harder to get it over the blocks,"

"We pushed them to have to score on us and that's what you need to do," Charles said. "You just can't let teams just beat up on you. You have to make them work and that's what we made them do."

Kaneland's Hannah Nauert earned 18 assists.

Cassandra Hunt led Sycamore with 9 kills.

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