Girls volleyball: Stevenson rallies to down Libertyville

Before Stevenson senior Sophie Sorenson flies east to play lacrosse at the University of Connecticut, keep paying attention to her indoor sport in the fall.

"With lacrosse, there is a lot of running up and down the field," Sorenson said. "In volleyball, you have to be strong mentally."

Sorenson suffered a knee injury playing lacrosse a year ago and missed time on the volleyball court. On Wednesday night, she had 14 kills and 11 digs, as the visiting Patriots rallied for a 20-25, 25-20, 25-17 over a young Libertyville squad in a North Suburban Conference opener.

"We have a lot of new players," Sorenson said. "We've been working on chemistry."

Stevenson (7-3) also had some hard hits from Lilly Cozzi, who delivered 7 kills.

"At practice, we decided that we needed to bring energy to every match," Cozzi said. "We were looking down after that first set, but we came back in the next set."

Libertyville (4-6) had spirited performances from three sophomores. Ella Schffnit led the Wildcats with 10 kills, fellow 10th-grader Kellie Hopper notched 8 kills and classmate Peyton O'Brien had 20 assists from her setting post.

Schaffnit and Hopper had kills that ended Set 1.

"We've just been really inconsistent in the early going," Libertyville coach Greg Loika said. "In that second set, we started to make some mistakes."

Sorenson began to make some kills in the second set, helping Stevenson surge to a 13-8 lead. With Hopper serving, O'Brien and Schaffnit registered kills, as the Wildcats pulled within 19-15.

"Our blocking really picked up," Stevenson coach Tim Crow said. "Libertyville is much bigger than us, but we started to serve harder as well."

Crow took time to compliment his volleyball/lacrosse player Sorenson.

"She's a grinder," Crow said. "She's very crafty out there. She also sees the floor very well."

Stevenson setter Grace Tully notched 25 assists and also had 7 digs.

"Grace is the next-best athlete on the team," Crow said. "She played DS on her club team, but she can also hit well."

Stevenson ran away and hid in the final set. On a serving ace from Vanessa Obrycki, the Stevenson lead was 10-5. It was 15-10 on Cozzi kill. Middle blocker Annie Armgardt put one away and the Pats were in control