Girls volleyball: Waubonsie Valley edges Neuqua Valley in three sets
Waubonsie Valley coach Kari Galen was all smiles when her team won another marathon three-setter Thursday night, but she is looking forward to a weekend without any volleyball matches.
The Warriors outlasted visiting rival Neuqua Valley 23-25, 25-22, 27-25 in front of a large, loud crowd in the newly remodeled Waubonsie Valley gymnasium. The triumph comes on the heels of a three-set victory over defending DuPage Valley Conference champion Naperville North earlier this week and after last weekend's long battles at the Wheaton Classic, where the Warriors placed sixth out of 24 teams.
"I'm pleased," Galen said of the 2-0 start in the DVC. "After that I needed a weekend off. I'm not sure I could have handled another long Friday and Saturday. We like to play them like this. We like three sets, but it speaks to the strength of the conference."
The visiting Wildcats (7-7) played some of their best volleyball this season, but after pulling out a close opener they dropped back-to-back tight sets to a Waubonsie Valley team that was clicking on offense and defense.
"We were really pleased with our fight. There were a lot of aspects of our game we've been working on and just trying to get a lot of cohesiveness together," said Neuqua Valley coach Kelly Simon, whose program sent its junior varsity to the final day of the Wheaton Classic so the varsity could attend funeral services for a player's father. "We've had a lot of disconnect this season for a lot of different reasons. Just working on different aspects and those came together well tonight."
The Warriors (12-5) were led by another big all-around effort from Melissa Walden, who had 13 kills, 11 assists and 10 digs, and Trinity Evans, who added 9 kills from the outside. Evans, who was named all-tourney at Wheaton last weekend, joins Gabi Croll to provide a powerful 1-2 outside punch.
"It was pretty fun," Evans said of Thursday's victory. "We just had to make sure that we stayed calm even when the games were point to point. It was nice to get a win like this. Every one gets us closer to winning conference. When we're clicking we can do a lot of good things."
Playing to stay alive with the match tied 21-21 in the second set, the Warriors took advantage of a couple Wildcats errors and a big swing from Aryanna Ruffin to even the match at one set apiece. The long third set went back and forth and was tied at 22, 23, 24 and 25 before Ruffin recorded a big winning tip to make it 26-25. Then a long point finally ended when Walden set up Croll, who ended the match with a perfectly placed tip.
"I get very emotional about it too because I revert back to my playing days and it's still the rivalry," said Galen, who played at Waubonsie Valley herself. "But I mean we've been working a lot in practice. Working on different drills and court coverage … we weren't always balanced on the court and the players were able to help us plan the practice and decide some things that needed work."
Wildcats senior libero Bailey Houlihan liked her team's effort, if not the final outcome.
"We played as a team really well tonight and that was exciting. It came down to unforced errors and we made a couple more than them," she said. "But this will be a learning example for us and we've just got to build up some momentum. We're going to see them (Warriors) again in conference and so we're hoping to go 1-1."