Girls volleyball: Belvidere North ends Kaneland's season

Another championship season for the Kaneland girls volleyball program that included conference and regional titles came to an end Monday night against a powerful Belvidere North team in the Class 3A Crystal Lake South sectional semifinals.

The Knights had their share of highlights, playing with Belvidere North for much of the first set and the start of the second before one shaky stretch of a 25-19, 25-13 loss.

Even at 8-8 after a block by Olivia Burtell in the set set, the Knights watched the Blue Thunder score 9 straight points with Jayden Flynn at the service line before another Burtell kill finally gave Kaneland a sideout, now down 17-9.

"We were hanging with them until that one service rotation and then we just sort of fell apart," Kaneland coach Cyndi Violett said. "We watched a lot of Belvidere North tape. We knew they were good. They are a young team too."

The Blue Thunder (35-3) will play Crystal Lake Central for the sectional championship Wednesday night, a team that handed them two of their three losses.

"I think we were a little jittery in the first set," Belvidere North coach Amanda Carlson said. "We were trying to feel them out and what they were doing and what we were going to do well. The second set was more indicative of who we are. We served tough, we were taking aggressive swings, we were energetic on defense. Much better in set two than set one."

Kaneland (29-9) had its hands full with several of the Blue Thunder's hitters including sophomore Rachel Scott (10 kills), junior Micaela Bowen (6 kills), sophomore Ava Irvin (5 kills) and sophomore Kaitlin Leider (4 kills).

Senior Grace Vranicar made several diving digs for the Knights but the Blue Thunder kept swinging, finishing with 15 kills in both sets.

"They have a lot of weapons," Violett said. "They serve hard and aggressive. We struggled a lot in the serve-receive portion. They definitely took our weapon out of the play by serving and attacking Grace (Franz)."

Franz led Kaneland with 4 kills and Meghan O'Sullivan had 3. Franz also served 2 aces including one that brought the Knights within 20-18 in the first set, one that included 8 ties and 5 lead changes.

Flynn's no-look flip over the net caught Kaneland off-guard to end a long rally and put the Blue Thunder up 22-18. Sammie Abruzzo's kill for Kaneland was its only point in a 5-1 Belvidere run to close out the first set.

"I think we could have given them a better game but overall we had an amazing sea on," Franz said. "We went out every game trying our hardest and sadly it comes to an end. But they are a good team."

Kaneland tied LaSalle-Peru for the Interstate Eight title and beat Prairie Ridge to win a regional.

"Its' been such a fun year," said Franz, one of three senior starters with Vranicar and Ava Ohmen. "I'm so happy and grateful to be part of it. We knew were going to be the underdogs coming into this (season) because we graduated a lot of seniors but we came out and gave it our all."

"We had a really good season," Violett added. "Changing conference has been different and coming in and having the icing with the regional was pretty awesome."