Girls volleyball: Kaneland cruises past Crystal Lake South
The Kaneland Knights smashed their way into the Class 3A sectional final with a 25-15, 25-20, straight-set win over Crystal Lake South Monday night in Sycamore.
"Another Sweet 16 appearance for us in the last five years, so that's awesome," Knights coach Cynthia Violett said. "So hopefully we'll get it done."
The Knights were rolling in the second set, up 14-7, but the Gators came charging back.
The Gators (31-6) went on a 10-4 run, sparked by a big smash from Jessie Proszenyak. The Gators got into their offensive rhythm and pieced together two three-point runs to push the Knights back on their heels for the first time in the match.
"We just wanted to play to our best potential and with our best intensity," Proszenyak said. "In that second set, that's when we fixed (our offense) and started to play back in our own rhythm and how we know how to play."
The Knights (34-3) responded after a timeout with Bella Rio leading the charge to put the game away. She swatted a kill and then laced two service aces to finish the game.
"That feels really good," Rio said. "I knew I couldn't score from the front row, so I had to score from the back row."
The Gators didn't have an answer for the Knights' power trio of Rio, Maddie Buckley and Meghan O'Sullivan in the match, with each player knocking down power shots through the Gator defense.
"Everyone knows what jobs they have to do," Rio said. "Everyone did their job and it paid off."
The Knights' offensive attack kept forcing the Gators to defend and stopped them from getting their offense set.
"I think we had a game plan and we failed to execute some of it," Gators coach Jorie Fontana said. "I think that just kind of rattled them mentally. Overall, I'm a little disappointed, but I'm so excited that their hearts stayed in it and they're intensity picked up."
In the first set, the Knights jumped out to a 5-1 lead behind Rio, Buckley, and O'Sullivan.
The Gators responded with 4 straight points to tie the game early, but the Knights went on a 9-2 run after that behind three aces from Mia Kane and kills from Rio and O'Sullivan.
The Knights' win put them at 34 victories for the season, which is a new school record. They will play Belvidere North, who beat St. Francis on Monday, for the Sycamore sectional title at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The Knights had something of a home-field advantage in the match. The Knights won at Sycamore in a key Interstate 8 match the week before the postseason started.
"We knew where the courts are," Rio said. "We knew how far we could run into the walls to get the ball or into the bleachers, so I guess we had the homecourt advantage."