Girls volleyball: Vernon Hills gets past Maine East in 3
After putting down a pair of kills in a tough first-set loss, Vernon Hills senior Marta Glyvka had to leave Wednesday's girls volleyball match at Maine East.
She had to join her fellow orchestra members for a concert.
But a few hours later, you can bet the talented flutist was getting the news on her volleyball team's fate through the Cougars' group chat.
She would learn that Vernon Hills hit all the right notes at the end of the next two sets and pulled out a 27-29, 26-24, 25-22 Central Suburban North triumph.
Freshman Alexa Cieslinski's kill gave the Cougars (9-9, 1-3) a 24-23 lead in Set 2 before Emma Matic's second-attack kill knotted it again 24-24.
Sophomore Victoria Lukyan then drilled a kill down the line and freshman Elli Amjadi served one of her 4 aces for the 26-24 win.
Set 3 was tied at 8, 9 and 10 before the visitors took the lead for good at 11-10 on a block by junior Daniella Jarrell.
Two service points by Cougars setter Abby Wisniewski (23 assists) extended the lead to 16-12.
The Blue Demons got to within 17-15 but Vernon Hills reached match point at 24-20. After a couple of errors, Vernon Hills wrapped it up on Lukyan's kill.
The first set was full of drama as senior Jaclyn Self's kill gave the Cougars a 25-24 lead.
The set was tied at 27 when Matic put down a kill and Maine East wrapped it up with Colleen Oribello's and a kill from Chris Kotsifas (match-high 22 kills) on her third attempt of the set's final rally. Oribello made the passes to Matic on all three tries.
"I think we just kind of got our energy back and played together in the second and third sets" said Self, who delivered 3 aces in the match. "It was just our energy, shaking off our mistakes and fighting throughout the match. It was really nice to get our first conference win after three losses."
Cieslinski (6 kills) and Jarrell (5 kills) led the Cougars, and all their kills came in the second and third sets.
"Alexa really came alive after the first set," added Cougars assistant coach Chris Curry. "Good move by coach (Arian Colton) getting her all those touches."
Taylor Proft added 4 kills for the Vernon Hills while the back row was led by Amjadi (13 digs), Cieslinski (11) and Lukyan (11).
Kotsifas had one of most productive attack nights.
"That outside hitter does an excellent job," Colton said. "She is a force to be reckoned with. And she continued to get some touches as the match went on and that made a difference.
"Overall it ws a good team win for us, We had a lot of people make big impacts so we're happy to see that."
One of those payers was Lukyan.
"Victoria really stepped and did a nice job," Colton added. "She hasn't gotten a lot of time in the front row but we put her in there and she put the ball in play and was aggressive. And that's what we need her to do,"
"Daniella is doing a good job in the middle. We like to get her the ball as much as we can. When we can do that, our team plays well."
Maine East coach Rintu Philip liked the play of Oribello.
"Colleen was serving well when we went on our run in the first set," he said. "She was digging everything in the back row. She is a quick athlete and just a total volleyball player. She has played every position for us. She is one the most coachable athletes we have."
Philip said the Blue Demons (7-10, 2-2) just needed to play cleaner volleyball at the end of the sets.
"I would say we just made a lot of errors toward the end of the last two sets and they just played cleaner than us," he said. "It's as simple as that. Overall we fought back. We've just got to finish. It was one of those nights where our passing wasn't there. Without a pass, we can't really execute."