Girls volleyball: McAllister, Hoffman Estates outlast Bartlett

It was hardly a secret as to what was happening at the end of the third set on Monday.

Get the ball to Niyah McAllister.

"It was kind of obvious to everyone in the gym who had the hot hand," said Hoffman Estates girls volleyball coach Pat Moran of his junior middle hitter. "And all I had to do was look at Callie (Meese, senior setter) and she already knew she had to get the ball to Niyah."

McAllister had a dominating run, putting down kills or blocks for the Hawks' 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th point to seal a 15-25, 25-21, 25-20 victory over visiting Bartlett in the nonconference match,

"I love my setter Callie," said McAllister, who runs relays and does the long jump for the girls track team. "We work hard in practice every day blocking straight down, hitting hard and we just fought real hard for this."

McAllister finished with a career-high 18 kills from 26-of-27 hitting while senior Patricia Wadas (32-of-34) clubbed 10 kills, all coming in the second and third sets.

"At the end, I said 'Niyah, they can't stop you right now - we're setting you and you put it away' - and she just did what she was told," Moran said. "We were just going to set the ball to Niyah until they stopped her and that never happened."

McAllister's final kill came off a quick set from Meese.

"We had no answer for No. 8 (McAllister)," said Bartlett coach Robert Schwantz. "She had fun. It seemed like she put the ball in the middle of the court 75 times and we just could not pick it up."

Bartlett's talented freshman Bria Lomax had some tough shots to pick up as she finished with a team-high 10 kills. Bella Diaz had 5 kills for the visitors (11-6). Riyana Chacko added four. Setter Dakota Johnson handed out 14 assists with an ace while Maddie Hankins (9 digs), Diaz (8) and Kristen Manur (5) led the back row.

"Give Hoffman credit," Schwantz said. "They had a ton of momentum at the end. "

The score was tied at 19-19 on a kill from Hoffman (6-8) junior Nora Rakoci. The hosts then received 2 kills and 2 blocks from McAllister and an ace from Gwen Madsen to take a 24-19 lead.

"They had that 6-0 run to put them at 24 and anytime a team goes from 18 to 24 that quick, they've got new life and they deserve to win," Schwantz said. "We had some undisciplined play but we we'll shake it off and get ready for our next match with Streamwood.

"I thought Bria played well. She did not have an error. What happens is that we find a hot hand and then we get way from it."

Just the opposite of Hoffman on Monday.

"She (McAllister) can jump out of the gym," Schwantz added. " A lot of times my blockers seemed to be coming down and she was still up there. So she was hitting over our block. "Both teams made a lot of errors. It just came down to who could find the cracks in the other's team defense and they did."

Ashley Poland led the Hoffman defense with 19 digs while Emma Essex added 12. Meese finished with 38 assists.

"Callie is a really good setter," Wadas said. "She helps with everything in practice. She pushes and I respect her for that. If there's a ball, she's going for it."

"It was awesome," Moran said. "We just came out a little flat in Set 1 for some reason but we then we had a nice talk in between sets and the defense really stepped up. We were getting a lot more touches which led to us running a better offense. Patricia and Niyah are two very talented hitters and kind of hard to stop when the passes are there. So our defense is what really made the difference in sets two and three."