'Nothing to lose': Titans girls volleyball upends rival Spartans to win 19th regional title

Glenbrook South girls volleyball coach Kelly Dorn said her team felt no pressure. The Titans played like it.

Lower-seeded Glenbrook South, which had lost twice to Glenbrook North during the regular season, beat the host Spartans in two sets on Thursday at the Class 4A Glenbrook North regional final, a free-and-easy 25-19, 25-15.

"I feel like we really had nothing to lose," said Titans sophomore outside hitter Ava Pratt, who turned setter Amanda Souter's assist into the match-winning spike through a double block attempt.

"We came into this match forgetting all our other losses and, really, we focused on film, we focused on dedication, and we really came together as a team," said Pratt, whose nine kills led the Titans.

Winning its 19th regional title but first since 2011, No. 6 seed Glenbrook South (18-14) advanced to play No. 1 Hersey (30-7) at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 1, in a Class 4A Glenbrook South sectional semifinal. No. 2 Barrington and No. 5 Warren play in the 6:30 p.m. semifinal with the winners reaching the sectional championship at 6 p.m. Nov. 3.

"It's definitely hard to beat a good team three times. They wanted it more," said Glenbrook North coach Tiffany Kim, whose fourth-seeded Spartans finished 24-8.

"We'd taken them to three games both times we played them, so mentally it seemed like they really wanted it. For us, it seemed like, we'd beaten them twice so we kind of sat back."

After another great performance of the national anthem by Glenbrook North middle hitter Jane Heywood, Glenbrook South's Abby Kuliga began the match with two straight aces and a 3-0 lead before Glenbrook North's Ava Spaniak ended the run with the first of her team-high eight kills.

Spartans possession didn't last. When Glenbrook South middle blocker Caroline Crawford denied a spike attempt, the Titans held a 9-3 lead.

Glenbrook North never mustered more than a three-point scoring run thereafter. Glenbrook South outside hitter Caroline Brooks' deep kill shot from Souter's assist ended the first set 25-19. The winning point was among several Kuliga saved with a floor-burn dig.

"She's a year younger than me, but I really look up to her for her defense. She just pops everything up. I think she adds a lot to the team defensively," said Glenbrook North's Binghamton University-bound libero Maddie Konopka, who plays with Kuliga in the Sky High Volleyball club.

"I think if you play good defense you're just going to win games, so I think they did a better job of executing that defensive part than we did," said Konopka, who notched five digs herself.

Serving, Renee St. John gave Glenbrook North its sole lead of the entire match, 1-0, to start the second set. The rivals battled to a pair of ties before Glenbrook South blended Spartans errors with points by sophomores Crawford and Brooks to lead 15-9.

"We played carefree, we played loose, one of the best matches we played all year, and our younger ones produced, so I'm very happy," Dorn said.

Glenbrook North was unable to pull within four points the rest of the set. Souter's knuckleball serves helped engineer a six-point Titans scoring run to 24-14 before Pratt ended the match.

"They ran everything," Kim said. "They got their middles involved, they got their defense involved, they got their outsides involved. I mean, they played a solid game."

A defining moment saw Kuliga hit the deck for a dig, junior setter Rachel Eshoo run nearly out a gym door to track the ball down, and Pratt end the play with a smash for the point.

"I feel like the energy on the court showed that we wanted it a little bit more," said Titans senior middle blocker Taylor Knuth, the Lamar University recruit who joined Brooks with five kills.

"Honestly we won just by playing GBS volleyball," she said. "GBS volleyball is aggressive and it's crazy and it's very talkative."