Girls volleyball: Victory vs. Neuqua Valley sends WW South to Gold
A veteran squad with high expectations, Wheaton Warrenville South was none too happy with the way the first set went with Neuqua Valley in girls volleyball pool play at the Wheaton Classic on Wednesday night.
The Tigers had swept Rosary in their tourney opener earlier in the day but then found themselves on the wrong end of a 25-15 score. But a senior-led squad fired itself up prior to Game 2 and went on to prevail 15-25, 25-18, 25-11 to advance to Saturday's Gold Bracket, a place the program has not visited in a few years.
Setter Sarah Burau, who had 31 assists to go with 4 kills and 4 blocks, is hopeful Wednesday's comeback win propels the program to bigger and better things.
"We haven't beaten Neuqua in quite a while and haven't gotten to Gold in a while, so this is like a monumental win for us," the four-year varsity player said. "We can do this. This is going to be a turnaround point for our season."
Burau credits a fellow senior, 6-foot-2 senior middle hitter Kaileigh Ammons, with sparking the comeback against the Wildcats.
Neuqua will play in the Silver Bracket on Saturday but will participate with its junior varsity squad. The varsity will miss the remainder of tourney to attend the funeral services for the parent of a player.
"One of the things was Kaleigh Ammons actually just in the huddle came out and said this is not OK. She just really turned it around. She was like '25-15, we should be embarrassed. That's not who we are. We're too afraid,'" Burau said. "She really turned the tide for the whole team. Then we were like, we're not going down like this. I don't know, I just credit her with getting everyone up again. Then once we got on a roll we caught on from there."
With Burau running a smooth 5-1 offense - not the 6-2 attack typically used by Wheaton Warrenville South (9-5) this year - the tourney hosts began to click and flashed more firepower than the Wildcats could handle. Outside hitter Zayna Meyer had 18 kills and Ammons and Annika Barron were forces in the middle with several key blocks and kills. Libero Darby Harris added 25 more digs after recording 15 in the sweep of Rosary.
"I can finally see all the hard work from freshman, sophomore and junior year," Burau said. "There's a light at the end of the tunnel and everything's finally working out. I'm just really proud seeing all the girls grow together."
For Neuqua, which rebounded to knock off Rosary 25-19, 25-16 following the three-set loss to the Tigers, that first set showed how tough the team can be when it's on top of its game. Faith Johnson and Taylor O'Malley are powerful and talented on the outside, the middles are very athletic and the team plays great overall defense, led by Bailey Houlihan, who had 18 digs. Johnson led the offense against WW South with 11 kills and O'Malley was close behind with 8.
The Wildcats (6-4) just were not as sharp as the Tigers in the final two sets, and the team with 11 seniors just took over down the stretch.
"We came out real strong, but then Wheaton South executed so well, especially late in the second set," Wildcats coach Kelly Simon said. "Then they were on fire in the third set. It seemed like everything that could go well for Wheaton South did. They deserved to win tonight."
In other pool play at the Wheaton Classic, the top two seeds each went 2-0 as Benet and Marist kept alive the possibility of a title showdown in Saturday night's Gold final. Waubonsie Valley defeated Lemont and Wheaton North to top its pool.