Girls volleyball: Jacobs learns lesson, beats P-R

After taking what Jacobs outside hitter Ireland Van Stone called "a punch in the face" from Huntley on Tuesday night, the Golden Eagles were eager to be the ones dishing out blows on Thursday.

Jacobs found what was working late in the second set, carried that through to the third and defeated Prairie Ridge, 17-25, 25-22, 25-17, in their Fox Valley Conference volleyball match at the Eagles' Nest.

"We played Huntley on Tuesday and just the opposite happened," Jacobs coach Gary Granell said. "We won Game 1, we were up in Game 2, they shifted momentum and won Game 2 and came out in the third game and took control. That's what we did today. We learned a lesson on Tuesday."

Van Stone led the Eagles (3-3) with 13 kills; Maggie Wallenberger had nine.

"Today we wanted to constantly have energy and go for every ball," Van Stone said. "I credit all my teammates for doing their best every time. We were super-consistent on serve-receive and defense."

Granell thought the Eagles' passing improved in the second set, which also made a difference.

"We were able to spread our offense out and move their blockers around," Granell said. "Ireland was getting a lot of kills off the outside. We had some stuff going in transition, going from defense to offense. That was key for us."

Jacobs setter Rachel Kaczorowski (25 assists, five kills) kept sending the ball to Van Stone on the outside later in the match.

"I trust my hitter," Kaczorowski said. "I've been setting for her for three years now, she's my girl. If she has a hot hand, I know she's feeling it and she wants the ball. I was feeling confident setting outside, so I fed her the ball and she put it down. We didn't stop because they didn't pick it up, so ... she was just the hot hand."

Jacobs led the second set, 15-10, but Prairie Ridge (2-4) rallied back for an 18-17 lead. From there, the Eagles closed with an 8-3 run. Jacobs never trailed in the third set.

"In the second set, we lost some confidence in what we were doing and they started swinging more aggressively," Wolves coach Stefanie Otto said. "There were a lot of missed opportunities by us to make better choices on what we were doing offensively. There were some defensive adjustments it took us a while to make.

"The one outside (Van Stone) went down the line a million times. That's what I mean about making adjustments. We were like, 'Guys, she's swinging line, what are you going to do about it?' "

Ansely Morlock led Prairie Ridge with 14 kills and three aces. Sammy Johnson had 17 assists, Maya Breseman had 11 digs and Claire Emery had two blocks.

Wallenberger and Kaczorowski each had three blocks for Jacobs. Van Stone had six digs and Wallenberger had four.