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Girls volleyball: Huntley nets regional championship

Late in the second set, Huntley's volleyball team found itself in an unfamiliar position - behind.

Following some uncharacteristic errors, Huntley found itself trailing Hononegah, 18-15. But the Red Raiders quickly righted the ship, scoring 6 of the next 7 points, and went on to defeat the Indians, 25-13, 25-20, to win the Class 4A Rockford Jefferson regional.

Huntley (34-3), will open sectional play Monday on its home court against St. Charles North (31-6).

Hononegah scored 6 straight points to take the late lead, but an errant serve gave Huntley a sideout and some momentum. A timeout by Huntley coach Karen Naymola during the Indians' run also helped the Raiders get back on their feet.

"In the beginning of the second set, we sort of let up a little, and even though we knew they weren't going to give up easily," said Huntley's Emma Konie. "So when our coach called a timeout, she lit a fire under our butts. She said you need to start fighting again and be more excited for every point you get, and that helped us push through and fight back."

"We got in a little bit of a rut in that serve-receive rotation once," Julia Johnson said. "Sometimes when they get out of it and get going and play our game, it starts going our way."

Johnson led the Raiders with 9 kills, including several well-placed tips. Loren Alberts added 6.

Huntley's depth and experience helped out in the critical times.

"At Autumnfest, we were down 22-15 to Benet and we were able to come back, so we've got confidence in situations like this," said Naymola. "And we've got so many go-to players that we can count on. So when the game is on the line, we're pretty confident giving the ball to anyone."

Taylor Jakubowski had 28 assists and 10 digs. Konie led the defense with 12 digs, while Sarah Zayas added 9.

Huntley's only comebacks in the first set were from deficits of 1-0 and 2-1. Following the latter, the Raiders ripped off 7 straight points to go ahead 8-2 and never looked back. Komie was on the service line for most of that run and helped it along considerably with 4 aces in that span.

Neither team scored more than 2 points in a row for the rest of the set, but Huntley could afford to trade points by then.

Both teams had some issues from the service line, contributing to the choppiness. At one point, 3 serves in a row sailed long and the teams combined to miss 5 out of 8.

Huntley led most of the way in the second set, but never by more than 2 early. Then a kill by Hononegah's Natalie St. John put Emma Schroeder at the service line, and she led the Indians to 5 more points, including an ace, before missing.

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