Willowbrook responds, beats Streamwood

Things could have gone south for the Willowbrook girls volleyball team in the third set against Streamwood, and most people would have understand.

After all, the Warriors dropped the middle set 25-22 and then fell behind the visiting Sabres 6-1 in the decisive set Monday night in Villa Park. The hosts then rallied to draw even at 7-7 behind four consecutive aces from Willowbrook's Payton Ceh, a team captain. Ceh then put down a winner for an 8-7 lead only to land awkwardly and eventually leave the gym in a wheelchair with her left knee wrapped.

But rather than get down, Ceh's teammates responded in a big way, going on a 13-3 run following the injury to one of their leaders. The surge paved the way to a 25-16, 22-25, 25-16 victory for the Warriors, who improved to 8-14 on the year.

"Payton's, like, definitely one of the strongest players on our team and she's our best defensive player," said Willowbrook senior outside hitter Katelyn McCann, who had 6 kills and 8 digs in the match. "We knew after that that if she's not coming back in that, we have to go 100 percent all out. We have to win this, not just for her but for everyone. We knew we had to put out a hundred percent effort and it showed. When she went down it was scary for all of us."

After the stoppage following Ceh's injury, Streamwood (5-20-2) scored to make it 8-8 in the third set. But Emma Barrington's big swing on the right side was followed by a kill from McCann and it was 10-8 and the home team was starting what would be a match-winning 12-1 streak. Caileigh Tuma rattled off a pair of aces in Ceh's absence as strong serving by the Warriors on Monday took its toll on the Sabres.

"It was a momentum breaker for us," Streamwood coach Sheryl Hettinger said. "We didn't take advantage (of Ceh's absence). They didn't (get down) and they had a couple strong servers that took it to us. Our serve receive tonight got us, but we were stronger in other areas than we usually are … we did good for us but we didn't come away with a win."

With McCann tough on the outside and Kaitlyn Karcz a force in the middle, Willowbrook never trailed while claiming the first set. Young setters Katie Linnig and Grace Reckamp were solid, with the freshman Linnig recording 11 assists and 11 digs in the match.

But Streamwood evened things up by claiming the middle set. The Sabres led 21-12 following a kill from Corinne Angle and a hitting error by Willowbrook. The Warriors did battle back to tie the set at 21-21, but the Sabres claimed the equalizer 25-22.

Warriors coach Irene Mason was glad to see a close match go her team's way, especially under Monday's tough circumstances.

"(Ceh) was bringing us back with the energy, getting us the momentum," Mason said. "But the rest of the girls did come and pick her up. It was good to see them band together and battle even when our leader went down. We're going to hope that she's OK as soon as possible, but we'll see."

Lillian Dewsnap and Mariely Sotelo each had 6 kills to pace Streamwood, while Ceh had 8 aces and 7 digs before her departure in the third set.