Girls volleyball: Maine West comes up big again
Three days after a victory over one of the top teams in the state, Maine West's girls volleyball team was on top of its game on Monday night.
The Warriors, who handed Naperville North (14-1) its only loss of the season at the Maine East Invite on Friday, rolled past visiting Deerfield 25-15, 25-14 to improve to 2-1 in the Central Suburban North and 11-6 overall.
"We had a big win against Naperville North (18-25, 25-16, 15-13)," said Warriors senior outside hitter Amanda Grzebien. "That gave us huge momentum going into this conference match."
"Because we are the only team to defeat them, we really built on that and brought energy to this match."
West raced ahead 9-1 in Monday's match, and after the visitors got back to within 11-10, the home team picked up new life again and pulled way to the first-set win.
West coach Mike Cott called for time out at 11-8.
"We let go there for a while," Grzebien said of the Deerfield comeback. "But we came back after the timeout and said we weren't going to let them (Deerfield) back into it. We used our energy and that helped carry us to win the match."
Christy Kolosvary's service run helped the West pull away again.
She served four straight points, including an ace, to extend the home team's lead to 17-11.
Wets senior libero Sophia Saldana served 3 points in a row, including an ace, to make it 23-13.
West put it away at 25-15 when senior middle blocker Jessica Riedl blocked an overpass for the set winner.
Reilly Olson and Grzebien each had 6 kills to lead a balanced attack which saw Riedl put down 4 kills followed by Angela Dugalic (3).
Kolosvary collected 10 digs and 6 assists while Ally Block had 9 assists and 5 aces.
"It's important at all times to have balance with your six players on the court and 13 on the team," Cott said. "Jess (Riedl) is great but it's a collective effort. If we don't pass, we can't get her the ball, if we don't set, we can't get her the ball.
"She frees up a lot a one-on-ones for our outsides and right sides. And if they're able to terminate, it gives us a big advantage because then teams can't camp out on her."
A service point by Hannah Lane gave Deerfield (6-20, 1-2) its only lead of the match at 1-0 in Set 2.
West quickly answered and took a 7-1 lead, thanks to a 5-point service run by Grzebien. Riedl had a big smash to the floor off a quick set by Block that made it 6-1.
Deerfield got back to within 11-8 before West pulled away for good. The hosts took a 19-9 lead with a kill by Dugalic and hitting error by Deerfield.
"We battled," said first-year Deerfield coach Blake Orlov, a 6-foot-5 middle blocker for Stevenson's 2000 boys volleyball team which took second in the state tournament to Sandburg.
"After falling behind 9-1, the girls just started to relax and really play. Like any run, we had a real good server step up in Lindsay (Lozar who served six straight points) and that got is back in the game."
Senior outside hitter Grace Sluzysnski led Deerfield with 5 kills
"It was good to see we had some fight left in us despite the rough start," added Orlov, who founded Chicago Bounce Volleyball at the age of 24 and still operates the club.
"I'm kind of a ringer coach" he joked.
Maine West's girls may have had Naperville North thinking they were ringers in the Maine East Invite last weekend.
But the Warriors are proving to be contenders in the CSL North as they are enjoying their third straight double-digit winning season under Cott.
"We had huge blocks and our defense was very good in that Naperville North match," Grzebien added. "We had a lot of energy on the bench as well as the court and that was huge for us to win that match."
Naperville North went on to defeat Hersey (12-4) in two sets for the Maine East title on Saturday.
"Naperville North was a great win against a great team," Cott said. "So I think it gives us the confidence we can play with anybody. It's just about developing a level of consistency within ourselves.
"Any time you get a win like this one (Deerfield), it's big and you got to feel good about it. Obviously there are things we can shore up but at the end of the day we wanted to win and we did."