Girls volleyball: Fisher, South Elgin slug past West Aurora
Hayley Fisher fittingly put the finishing touches on South Elgin's victory over West Aurora Tuesday night in a battle of two teams expected to compete for the Upstate Eight Conference championship.
Fisher started the match slamming a bad Blackhawks pass down for a kill, and she ended the night pounding a ball off the West Aurora block and down to cap a 25-16, 25-23 victory.
Her 12 kills topped both teams and were more than half of the Storm's 21 total.
"It's always fun to get the last point," Fisher said. "It's always fun to end with a good hit. I was excited about that.
"We all have individual goals and our big team goal is to win the conference."
The Storm (6-3, 2-0) are just getting started on that goal now that the UEC is no longer split into two divisions.
"This is definitely a big win for us," South Elgin coach Joni Plach said. "I'm really excited for one conference and one conference champion."
South Elgin actually played in West Aurora's tournament on Saturday and went just 2-3 while the Blackhawks (9-4, 1-1) went 5-0 to win the tournament.
It was a different story Tuesday from the get-go. After Fisher's kill, West Aurora made the first of its 14 attack errors.
Kendall Richardson followed with a kill and McKayla Geraghty served an ace for a 4-0 South Elgin lead.
West Aurora didn't get closer the rest of the set which Sierra Lewand closed with a kill.
"We had a lot of energy," Plach said. "They were ready to play on their home court. They all did their job tonight. Certain players have certain roles and they all did their role. Defense was amazing, blocking was amazing. This is the best blocking I've seen from us this year."
That blocking really picked up down the stretch of the second set to help the Storm rally from a 18-14 deficit.
South Elgin closed the match on an 11-4 surge, starting when the Blackhawks hit long two straight points, mishandled a pass, then hit into the net for 4 straight errors and an 18-18 game.
A block by Richardson put the Storm up 19-18, and they took the lead for good at 22-21 on Rylee Pompa's tip. Pompa followed with another block, and Fisher ended the Storm's last 2 points with kills.
In addition to her 12 kills, Fisher led the Storm with 13 digs and served 2 aces. Pompa (5 kills, 3 blocks), Richardson (2 blocks, 11 assist, 2 aces), Anna Skrzpchak (9 assists, 11 digs), McKayla Geraghty (9 digs) and Emily Wellman (11 assists) all contributed.
"They are a very mature team. They have played a lot of club ball, they have played a lot of high school volleyball," Plach said. "We have a lot of girls that have played a lot of varsity volleyball. This is the year it should come together, all the hard work."
West Aurora will try to bounce back Wednesday against Neuqua Valley. The Blackhawks, playing without outside Chloey Myers (ankle injury), were led by Kendra Battle's 6 kills, 3 blocks and 6 digs, and Lauren Greenwood's 10 digs.
"We were a little bit off tonight," West Aurora coach Kevin Mortlock said. "Can't point to one single thing. Just made too many unforced errors to come back from."