Girls soccer: Wire helps Crystal Lake South close out McHenry
Tied at 23 in the third and final set, Crystal Lake South, predictably, turned to its big hitter against McHenry.
Outside hitter Gabby Wire, an NCAA Division I Wisconsin-Milwaukee commit, had given the Warriors plenty of trouble throughout Tuesday's Fox Valley Conference showdown, and the Gators senior was up to the challenge in the closing moments.
Wire came up big with back-to-back kills, with the final point set up by junior setter Olivia Apt, and the Gators held off the Warriors 25-22, 19-25, 25-23 at McHenry's freshman campus.
Wire had a match-high 17 kills, adding 10 digs and two aces. She had eight kills in the third set, including the first and last points of the set.
"She gets this tunnel vision like, 'I'm going to do this,' and I think our setters see that, too," Gators coach Annie Moore said. "She's super confident that she's going to put the ball down, and you can see it on her face. Everything changes about her.
"I'm super proud of her for stepping up. But it's not about her, though. It's about her doing it for the team."
South (9-4, 4-3 FVC) led by as many as five points in the last set and was leading 23-19 before McHenry (7-6, 2-5) went on a 4-0 run to tie the score at 23-all. During that run for the Warriors, Mollie Hobson had a kill, Sophie Zieba had a block and Ella Boland added an ace.
Wire was proud of her team for overcoming a tough atmosphere and a few rough stretches.
"It was really loud in here, and I was telling the girls we have to calm down and focus on what we have to do individually for the team," Wire said. "If we all just focus on each one of our jobs, we contribute to the team, and that's how we won the game.
"Everyone's energy and spirit was better. We just worked as a team so well."
Moore felt South did a good job of mixing up its offense.
Senior setter Grace Meyer led the Gators with 18 assists, Apt had 15 assists, and junior Morgan Johnson had eight kills and 13 digs. Freshman Bobbi Wire had five kills, 10 digs and four aces, and freshman Logan Georgy had three kills and four blocks.
The Gators dropped a tough, two-set loss to Huntley last week but have gone 5-1 since.
"I think we had a lot of fight in us," Apt said. "In those tense situations, we did a good job of calming down, and our defense really picked up. Gabby Wire, obviously, getting those last few kills is great. We're always very confident in her because she never really lets us down. Even if there's a bad set or a messy place, she's usually able to clean it up good."
The Warriors were led by senior Erin Nothdorf with 10 kills, senior Mollie Hobson with eight kills and three aces, and senior Ella Boland with seven kills and three aces. Junior Madyson Weber tallied 11 digs, junior Riley Ten Bruin had 29 assists and two aces, and junior Sophie Zieba added three blocks.
McHenry scored the final five points of the second set to force a third.
The Warriors have lost four in a row after winning seven straight.
"This is the fourth match that we've lost 25-23, so we just really need to work on closing out matches in our favor," Warriors coach Kyle Hobson said. "I think the girls did a really good job of fighting back in that last set and not letting that deficit really impact them. I think a positive thing about our team is when one player is not doing well, we have others who step up.
"We just need to finish better."