PALATINE, Ill. – With regionals just a week away, the #9 Harper College volleyball team showed they will be tough to beat on their home court as they notched another impressive win 3-1 (25-17, 25-17, 23-25, 25-20) over Madison College (19-9) on Thursday night.  The win was the Hawks' sixth straight victory.
 
Harper (32-11, 10-2 N4C) came out firing in the first game, sprinting to an 8-3 lead.  Stephanie Igielski (Streamwood, Ill., St. Edwards) had 2 kills to get the Hawks going and kills from Sarah House (Crystal Lake, Ill., Crystal Lake South) and Lauren LaMasse (Hoffman Estates, Ill., Hoffman Estates) gave the team the 5 point lead.  Back-to-back kills from Liz Dotson (Palatine, Ill., Fremd) staked Harper to their biggest advantage of the game at 24-14 before the Hawks held on for a 25-17 win.
 
Facing an 8-4 deficit to start the second game, Harper burned a timeout and emerged refocused.  Out of the timeout, the Hawks scored the next 5 points to take a 9-8 lead, thanks to kills from Lindsey Pickle (Arlington Heights, Ill., Prospect) and Igielski.  After Madison pulled to within 11-10, Harper stepped up their defense.  Three blocks from Dotson and Alyssa Cazzato (Bartlett, Ill., Bartlett) helped push the Hawks on an 8-0 run to take a commanding 19-10 lead.  Kills from Dotson, House and Pickle sparked Harper to close the game out 25-17.
 
Looking for a sweep in the third game, Harper fell behind 8-3 and was forced to play catchup.  The Hawks eventually tied it at 11-11 on a kill from House and at 13-13 on a kill from Igielski but from there, Madison pulled away to take a 20-15 edge.  Harper nearly completed the comeback thanks to kills from LaMasse, Sam Wallenberg (Elk Grove, Ill., St. Viator) and Dotson but eventually lost 25-23.
 
The fourth game looked much like the third as Madison capitalized on their momentum and jumped out to a 7-1 lead to force a Harper timeout.   But slowly, the Hawks started to chip away at the lead and wear down Madison with some fantastic play.  Kills from House and LaMasse got Harper to within 10-6.  A great dig from Cazzato led to a kill by Dotson and after a Pickle kill, Harper trailed just 11-9.  The Hawks took the lead for the first time in the fourth game on a kill from Dotson to make it 18-17.  Cazzato put Harper up 20-19 and after Madison tied it at 20-20, the WolfPack wouldn't score another point the rest of the night.  Dotson had a kill, Cazzato had a block and Andraia Leja (Crystal Lake, Ill., Prairie Ridge) had an ace to end the game 25-20 in Harper's favor.
 
Dotson led the team with 13 kills while Igielski had 9 and LaMasse and House had 8 apiece.  Cazzato and Dotson proved to be difficult to hit around as they had 6 and 5 blocks, respectively.  Leja had 12 digs and 2 aces while Cazzato finished with 39 assists.
 
“We played the first two games very well,” said head coach Bob Vilsoet said.  “In game 3, we needed a better effort and when you combine that with the fact that Madison is a very tough team and things went their way, we had a very close game.  In game four, we went back to the lineup of the first two games and we got the result that we wanted."
 
The team heads to Kankakee on Saturday to compete in a tri-match with the hosts and 4-year school Robert Morris College (Springfield).  Game times for Harper are 10:00 AM and noon.