Box Score PALATINE, IL-  The #8 ranked Harper College volleyball team traveled to Joliet to take on the #10 ranked Joliet Junior College Wolves on Tuesday.  In four sets, the Hawks defeated the Wolves.

The first set was a tight contest from the start as the biggest lead of the set was 3 points.  After leading 9-6, Joliet was able to take a 12-10 lead with 7 of those points coming on Harper errors.  The Hawks battled back to a 16-16 tie and a 23-21 lead.  However, the Wolves hung tough and mounted their own comeback.  Harper ended up dropping the first set 25-27.

Set two of the night was another nail biter that saw ties at 6, 10, 11, 13, 18, 22, 23, and 25 points.  Joliet took a one-point lead before Harper was able to battle out 3 straight points for a 28-26 win.

After a quick 4-0 start in the third set, four Harper hitting errors contributed to Joliet bringing the score to 7-6.  After another 4 ties, Harper was able to create some breathing room and took the third set by a score of 25-19.

The fourth set lacked the drama from the first three as the Hawks took an early 7-3 lead.  Strong serving from Jessica Smith (West Chicago/West Chicago) ran the score to 15-5 on the way to an eventual 25-16 win, ending the match.

Gabby Fugle (Island Lake/Wauconda) led the way with a match-high 19 kills, while Lydia Schiller (Hoffman Estates/Classical Consortium Academy) had 10 of her own.  The Hawks had 10 aces on the match while serving 88.2%.  Four of those aces were from Carlene Colton (Lake in the Hills/Huntley).  Abby Wemble was a defensive force at the net, as she totaled 5 blocks in the match.  Harper totaled 89 digs in the match with Karolina Sas (Palatine/Fremd) and Kayla Agoranos (Hampshire/Hampshire) leading the way with 20 digs each.  Kathleen Gueco (Hanover Park/Hoffman Estates) notched 45 assists and 11 digs to give her another double-double.

Head coach Bob Vilsoet was happy with the team's performance saying "This was a good win for Harper, defeated a much-improved #10 ranked Joliet team that defeated #7 Rock Valley in 5 sets."

Harper's next match will be Thursday, September 27 as they host Triton College.  The match is scheduled to begin at 6pm.