Girls volleyball: Wiley, Prospect rally to beat Rolling Meadows
Prospect's Annie Wiley was stoic at the service line. That despite a loud and raucous Rolling Meadows group of mostly male students who were just feet away yelling in attempt to break her concentration.
No such luck.
If anything, Wiley dug in deeper. The senior served 9 consecutive points which included 5 consecutive aces for Prospect. That helped turned the tide for the Knights, who rallied for a 23-25, 25-15, 25-15 Mid-Suburban East girls volleyball win over host Rolling Meadows Thursday.
"I don't like those boys anyway so I don't care," said Wiley, who is a middle hitter and also had 5 kills and 2 blocks.
"I just tried to serve it the best I could. I wanted to keep them quiet."
Prospect (8-4, 2-1) had lost the opening game 27-25 and then found itself trailing 12-10 in the second set. That's until Wiley took over.
"It was great," Prospect coach Laura Gerber said. "She served super aggressively. And she was able to persevere with those boys screaming at her the entire time."
Rolling Meadows (3-8, 0-3) broke out to a huge lead in the first set thanks to the play of Ashlyn Ryan, who had 6 of her 10 kills in that set, and Bianca Maday (6 kills). The Mustangs jumped out to a 12-4 lead and appeared to be in control with a 22-16 lead.
Prospect was able to rally to tie the game at 22 with outside hitter Grace Carcini attacking from the left side. Meadows was able to pull through thanks to a pair of blocks to give it the first set win.
"We weren't really ourselves in that first game," said Carcini, who had 20 kills, 4 coming at the end of the first set that helped begin to wake Prospect up.
"We didn't have a lot of energy. We finally came back strong in the final two games. I felt really good on the left side. I give Sarah (Skaggs) a lot of credit. She gets the ball to where we need it."
After Wiley pulled Prospect ahead in the second set, the Knights kept marching on to win that set 25-15.
In the third set, Prospect led 11-8 when the Knights pulled away. Leaning on Carcini, Prospect setter Skaggs also spread the wealth, finding Jenna Acosta (6 kills), Ellen Sherwood (9 kills) and Wiley. Prospect went on a 7-1 run to open up an 18-9 lead and coasted home for the 25-15 win.
"Our first game we just didn't have it together and Rolling Meadows did real well," Gerber said. "We had to regroup. And in the third game you saw the team I see every day."
Rolling Meadows coach Katie Stensland said her young team is working on finishing off a match.
"We come out fine in the first game," Stensland said. "In the second and third we get a little bit in your heads. They are really trying to work on that. We are looking to become mentally tougher."