Girls volleyball: Stevenson rallies for Senior Night victory
Stevenson's Senior Night was almost ruined by the likes of Janelle Reams, Faith Pollard and Alayna Malec.
Those sluggers belong to the Warren volleyball team.
“Warren was playing great defense and blocking well early,” Stevenson coach Tim Crow said.
Stevenson honored its seniors on Wednesday night. It's a group that includes Lily Cozzi, Grace Tully and Abby Keevins. And then Warren came out and pinned a first-set win on the Patriots.
“That wasn't unexpected,” Cozzi said. “It was Senior Night.”
Stevenson stormed back to take the match 21-25, 25-20, 25-13 to improve to 18-9 and 5-0 in the North Suburban Conference.
“I like everyone on this team.” Cozzi said. “Amanda (Holsen) is so good for a sophomore. And Emerson (Kouri) really stepped up at libero.”
Warren's last lead of the second set was 16-14. And another one of those seniors, Connie Song, went into serve for the Pats. She had the help of 2 block kills from Cozzi. Two kills from Makayla Uremovich and another kill from Emma Potocki, and the Stevenson lead was 22-17.
“We had some blocking changes,” Crow said. “And Connie Song got us going on the line.”
Holsen led the Patriots with 14 kills. She's the team leader in the category as a first-year varsity starter.
“I was playing several sports growing up, but I fell in love with volleyball,” Holsen said. “I didn't play a lot last year. We have really good chemistry this year.”
Warren led 3-2 in the third set, but the third-set serving star was Keevins. She landed an ace, Potocki had a kill and a block, and Cozzi put down 2 kills in a row. Only a Malec kill stopped Stevenson' run after the Patriots' extended their advantage to 20-8.
Cozzi had 9 kills, while Potocki tallied 4 kills and 5 blocks. Tully delivered 29 assists and 2 kills, while Kouri had 19 digs.
Warren was led by Malec (9 kills, 1 ace, 5 digs), Ellie Columbus (1 ace, 12 digs), Sarah Barbosa (12 digs), Elizabeth Weinberg (4 kills), Gabrielle Brewer (6 assists, 5 digs), Kayleigh Glickley (18 assists, 8 digs), Kendal Crawford (5 kills) and Pollard (4 kills).