Girls volleyball: Fennelly, Conant right on target against Prospect
Conant senior Fiona Fennelly said her sets were a little 'iffy' in last weekend's Peggy Scholten Classic, where the Cougars went 2-3.
"Some were good, some were bad," she said.
Everything was all good on Tuesday night when the Cougars hosted Prospect in a Mid-Suburban League crossover in Hoffman Estates.
Not only was she on target with her sets, Fennelly was connecting on her serves.
She served three straight aces in Set 1 to break a 6-6 tie and ignite the Cougars to a 14-7 lead they would never relinquish in a 25-17, 25-13 triumph.
"Fiona is kind of getting in that leadership role a lot more," said Cougars coach Drewann Pancratz, whose team evened its record at 4-4. "It's her senior year and she ran our offense last season. I think she is starting to take more ownership."
The Cougars owned a 21-14 lead in Set 1 when senior Bella DiPaolo put down one of her 4 kills.
After a timeout by Prospect coach Laura Gerber, Fennelly delivered another ace.
"We got served off the court and we missed too many serves," said Gerber, whose club fell for the first time after nonconference wins over Loyola, Maine South and St. Viator. "Our serve receive was very, very weak. We weren't attacking balls that we should have and could have put over the net. We were out-served and out-passed. Conant played a great match, unfortunately for us."
The hosts received a match-high 7 kills from junior outside hitter Yuri Hara while Natalie Jurgenson added 4 kills.
The Cougars' back row collected 8 digs from Hara and five from sophomore Mackenzie Lunkes.
Conant didn't skip a beat in Set 2 as it quickly pulled away to 4-0 lead, getting 3 service points from Hara.
Back-to-back kills by junior Chikere Oduocha made it 16-9 before junior Allie Chang gave the hosts big boost when she served 4 straight points, including 3 aces for a 19-9 cushion.
Grace Cacini leapt high at the net to put down a kill that made it 19-10 but the Cougars closed out the match when junior Jessica Sharp put down her first block for a kill and match winner.
"Jessica is very athletic," Pancratz said. "She worked very hard in the off-season and were really excited about her.
"We just want to keep improving every day. We did a lot of good things in our tournament but we weren't happy with the total outcome. The girls have been working really hard in practice and the early-season tournaments are awesome for us. You learn so much about your team. You work out the kinks and we just told the kids to stay focused."
The Cougars exemplified that to perfection on Tuesday.
"We didn't connect as much as a team as we usually do (in the Scholten)," Fennelly said. "Tonight, we locked in and focused on supporting each other even through the harder times.
"This give us a lot of enthusiasm and we have confidence now going into our first conference match (Thursday vs. Palatine). I think we have potential for the rest of the season and definitely can capitalize and do better than we did last season.
Taking their cues from setter Sarah Skaggs, the Knights received 3 kills apiece from Cacini, Emma Cogan, Elizabeth Abraham and Annie Wiley.
"We have to go back and make teams earn points instead of giving them points," Gerber added. "That's what we will work on in practice (today)."