Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3

GRAYSLAKE, Ill. – The #4 Harper College volleyball team won all three of their matches on Satuday at the College of Lake County to increase their winning streak to nine matches.
 
The Hawks began the day with a 3-1 win (25-16, 25-21, 17-25, 28-26) over Kankakee Community College, who are ranked in the “others receiving votes” category in Div. II.  Harper started out strong with a 4-1 lead behind strong serving from Kelly Spychala (Des Plaines, Ill., Elk Grove).  Harper continued to extend the lead throughout the set to 7-3, 11-5 and 13-6, before winning 25-16.  The Hawk hitters were sharp in the second set as Kelly Sommers (Arlington Heights, Ill., Buffalo Grove) had 15 of her 46 assists.  Kankakee made some adjustments in the third set to win, but Harper won a tight fourth set behind Veronica Dabrowski (Des Plaines, Ill., Rolling Meadows), who had seven kills, and Sarah House (Crystal Lake, Ill., Crystal Lake South), who had four kills.  After the score was tied at 12-12, there were eight different points at which the set was even but the Hawks emerged victorious after Dabrowski's final kill.  House led the way with 12 kills while Sam Wallenberg (Elk Grove, Ill., St. Viator) contributed a team-best 26 digs.  Spychala also played solid on the backline with 17 digs.  Sommers had another double-double with her 14 digs while Rebekah Hischke (Algonquin, Ill., Dundee Crown) had four blocks.
 
“We played a very strong match today against a very strong and ranked volleyball team,” Vilsoet said.  “Sarah House (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake South) had her first double-double of the year.  Libero Sam Wallenberg (Elk Grove, Ill./St. Viator) was all over the place on defense.  We needed every one of Veronica's kills to win the fourth set in a close one.  We didn't want another five-setter this week.”
 
In their second game of the day against South Suburban College, Harper (11-1, 1-0 N4C) rebounded from a first set loss to win 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-17).  Erinn Hellweg (Wauconda, Ill., Wauconda) tied for team honors in kills with House as each tallied 11.  Clara Moravec (Lake in the Hills, Ill., Jacobs) had eight and Hischke added seven.  Megan Kollmeyer (Tustin, Mich., Pine River) had 12 digs while Sommers tallied another double-double with 43 assists and a team-high 14 digs.
 
“South Suburban is a much improved team this year,” Vilsoet said.  “They have a new coaching staff and some very good players.  They are a very different team than they've had the last decade.  Luckily we were ready, but we certainly had to make some adjustments along the way against them to win.”
 
The third match of the day against College of Lake County was more of the same for Harper, who posted a 3-0 triumph (25-16, 25-16, 25-15).  Moravec, Dabrowski and Hellweg each had at least eight kills.  Spychala paced the Hawks on defense with 16 digs and Valerie Bazemore (Houston, Tex., Westfield) had 22 assists.
 
“We had already defeated College of Lake County in our first match of the year,” Vilsoet said.  “So the concern was a let down due to overconfidence or some other typical inexplicable reason.  However, we fought for every point in this match and played very well.  This win capped an undefeated day here at College of Lake County, and an undefeated week having defeated Joliet earlier this week on Tuesday.  We are in the middle of a very good start at 11 wins and 1 loss this year.  I am very proud of the accomplishments this team has made to date, plus am very pleased with the improvements so far this year.”
 
Harper returns to action on Tuesday when they host Milwaukee Area Technical College.  The match is scheduled to begin at 6:00 PM.