Girls volleyball: Glenbrook South finds a way past Prospect
Playing without all-conference senior libero Val Thomas was not the way Prospect's girls volleyball team wanted to end its 2017 season on Monday night.
But the Knights still ended up competing to the end before No. 16-seed Glenbrook South put away a 25-15, 25-18 triumph over the No. 18 Knights, who were hosting a play-in match for their own Clas 4A regional at the Jean Walker Field House.
Set 2 was tied eight times, the last at 18-18, before a side out kill by South junior Claudia Brown made it 19-18.
Titans junior Eleni Copetas then served for the final 6 points to advance her team to Tuesday's 5:30 p.m. semifinal against top-seeded New Trier.
Copetas began her match-wining service by getting 1 of setter Megan Quill's 3 kills for a 20-18 advantage.
Copetas followed with an ace, 3 errors by Prospect and another ace to win the match.
"Eleni went on her own," said Titans coach Kelly Dorn, whose team raised its record to 14-18. "She went to a different zone and it worked and I just let her go for it. She is amazing."
Copetas finished with 3 aces and 1 kill in the match.
"I was definitely focused," she said. "I was looking at the court and seeing what was open. My coach was giving me the zones to start but she was like 'You know what's open'. I just saw the court, took deep breathes, flung the ball up as usual and served.
"It was a tight set all the way. We just all we just all came together at the end and realized we could come through and win it."
Prospect (14-22) came through early in the second set and grabbed a 4-1 lead behind the serve of Mia Farraday (8 digs, 1 ace).
The sophomore Farraday took over at libero for Val Thomas, who ranked among the Mid-Suburban League leaders in digs.
Unfortunately, the Elmhurst-bound senior suffered some injuries in an automobile accident last week and had to sit on the bench.
"She (Thomas) was cheering us on the bench and we played hard," said senior Meghan Meredith, the Knights' other all-conference player along with Thomas.
"We were all really good friends on this team and we had good energy," added Meredith who had 3 kills, 2 blocks and 3 aces. "Being a captain you have to stay positive all the time and I think it really helped me grow as a person to be more positive about myself."
Sophomore Grace Cacini led the Knights with 5 kills while senior Colleen Palczynski and junior Emma Cogan added 2 apiece. Sophomore setter Kasi Acosta handed out 8 assists despite missing more than a handful of points in the middle of Set 1 due to a bloody nose.
"It's really too bad," said Knight coach Laura Gerber. "When you are missing your libero, it makes a huge difference in the way you play defense, and then our setter was out for those 6 points. That kind of threw a wrench into Set 1. Then we were able to come back in the second set but still weren't able to get past it."
"Prospect's a great little team," Dorn said. "It was phenomenal to win on their court. I'm really excited about it."
The Titans' offense was led by Kate Gregory (9 kills) while Kiley Hanson and Christina Kiadi each had 4. Quill collected 11 assists.
Prospect also received a kill from junior Sloane Petlak, while classmate Gianna Russo had 5 digs and sophomore Sarah Skaggs 2.
"I was happy with how the girls played this season," Gerber said. "I would have liked to have won a few more matches but sometimes when you are young, you make a lot of errors due inexperience and it takes time and experience to become a better and smarter player. We are getting there. By next year, I expect that."