PALATINE, Ill. – The Harper College volleyball team finished strong, winning the last two games against 7th-ranked Rock Valley to win 3-1 (25-20, 15-25, 25-20, 25-23) on Tuesday night. The victory avenged an earlier loss to the Golden Eagles on September 6th.
Rock Valley came out of the gate fast, scoring the first three points in game one but Harper battled back and tied it up at 5-5 on a kill from Lauren LaMasse (Hoffman Estates, Ill., Hoffman Estates). A four-point run in the middle of game one highlighted by kills from Sarah House (Crystal Lake, Ill., Crystal Lake South) and Lindsey Pickle (Arlington Heights, Ill., Prospect) gave Harper the lead for good at 13-9. After the Golden Eagles drew close at 18-17, House strung together three kills in a row to put the Hawks back in the driver's seat before Pickle finished the game off with a kill.
The second game didn't go as planned for the Hawks. After being tied at 6-6, Rock Valley outscored Harper 12-5 before a LaMasse kill halted the run. But Harper responded in an important third game, trading points most of the way. A kill from House gave the team some separation at 18-15 before Alyssa Cazzato (Bartlett, Ill., Bartlett) served up an ace to all but end Rock Valley's chances at 24-20.
The fourth game was one with many runs, as the Hawks sprinted out to an 8-1 lead, thanks to kills from House, Pickle and LaMasse. The Golden Eagles answered with a run of their own to eventually tie the game at 12-12. The sides traded points until Cazzato made a great dig to save a point and the setter saw her attempted dig fly over the net for a Hawk point. Harper closed out the match on the next set.
“They cleaned up their errors in games two, three and four,” said head coach Bob Vilsoet. “Both sides were a little jittery. Last time we played at Rock Valley, they got through their jitters in the first game and we ended up making more. The experience there earlier in the season helped us to the point that we don't make as many errors in a row like we did early on. That's a talented team. Volleyball is won by making fewer mistakes rather than highlight plays. We are minimizing those mistakes.”
House led the way with 14 kills while Stephanie Igielski (Streamwood, Ill., St. Edwards) played a great match with 12 kills. Andraia Leja (Crystal Lake, Ill., Prairie Ridge) had 20 digs while Cazzato registered a double-double with 38 assists and 16 digs. Megan Kollmeyer (Tustin, Mich., Pine River) added 13 digs while Pickle and Igielski were huge at the net with four blocks each.
“We don't really have a game plan,” Vilsoet said. “We just have an offense. As it happened today, Sarah was on fire and got a lot of sets. She plays defense and was just all over the place.
Harper returns to action on Thursday as they travel to Elgin. First serve is scheduled for 6:00 PM.
